The Social Aspects of the Global Crisis in Serbia

Abstract

The global financial crisis has revealed structural weaknesses within Serbia’s economic and social systems, which have heightened concerns for their long-term sustainability. The crisis has also been accompanied by a sharp decline in the national GDP, the deterioration of the national labour market, an increase in poverty rates, and adverse social consequences commonly pinned to economic frailty. Short-term measures to mitigate the negative effects of the crisis have only partially succeeded. Serbian social reforms in the previous decade incorporated profound changes to the state’s pension and health care systems, unemployment protections, social welfare, etc. National social policies have likewise been reformed under the broader framework of European harmonization and the country’s orientation towards EU accession. Yet the underwhelming results in all areas of social reform suggest that Serbia continues to fall further behind EU standards – a fact which has only intensified since the crisis began.