The Ministry of Finance must urgently release data on public debt and deficits in accordance with European standards, stated Gordana Radojević, executive director of the Montenegrin Society of Statisticians and Demographers (DSD).
“In March of this year, it will be exactly ten years since the Government adopted the Strategy for Implementing European Statistical Standards in Public Finance Statistics. Although the European Union (EU) has spent a decade working and investing in the development of this statistic, the Ministry of Finance still has not published it, despite having access to it,” Radojević said in a statement.
The reason for this, she believes, is obvious—the application of the ESA 2010 standard significantly changes the fiscal picture of Montenegro, increasing the reported percentage of public debt and deficit in relation to the Gross Domestic Product (GDP).
“This would reveal how far Montenegro is from meeting the Maastricht criteria, specifically the EU fiscal limits, which state that the budget deficit should not exceed three percent of GDP, and public debt should not exceed 60 percent of GDP,” Radojević warned.
The European Commission (EC) has repeatedly pointed out that without valid data on the state of public finances, it is impossible to close negotiation chapters 18—Statistics, 17—Economic Criteria, and 33—Financial and Budgetary Provisions.
Since 2015, when the Ministry of Finance promised European partners gradual alignment with ESA 2010, much has changed—five governments, six finance ministers, and five lead negotiators.
“However, the expert and managerial staff at the Ministry of Finance responsible for this area has remained unchanged. In fact, some of the key people involved in this unfinished task have even been promoted after 2020. However, fiscal transparency has not progressed alongside them. Data on public finances, aligned with European standards, are still unavailable to the domestic public, and cannot even be found on the Eurostat website,” Radojević explained.
Instead of completing the unfinished work, the Ministry of Finance, according to Radojević, is attempting to shift the responsibility to Monstat, even though the institution lacks the adequate resources to carry out such a complex task.
“According to the latest EC report, Monstat lacks 40 percent of the necessary staff. Meanwhile, the Ministry of Finance is amending legislation, not to strengthen Monstat’s professional independence or create better working conditions, but to formally transfer its unfinished task of processing and publishing public finance statistics to this already overburdened institution,” Radojević said.
She emphasized that ignoring European rules regarding the presentation of public finance data is not just a statistical issue but a financial and political risk.
“We must not forget that concealing the true state of public finances and manipulating statistics led to the financial collapse in Greece in 2009. When the accurate data finally came to light, it was too late—the confidence of investors had collapsed, and austerity measures hit the most vulnerable segments of society, leaving long-term socio-economic consequences,” Radojević concluded.
