Pensioners in Serbia in January next year they should win 12 percent higher amount than now, announced President Aleksandar Vučić and Minister of Finance Siniša Mali.
The average pension is not even half average salaries in Serbia. However, that is an average. In practice, for most pensioners, the difference is significantly greater, especially for those with low or minimal pensions.
"The average pension is losing the race with the average salary, which is also not spectacular. Now the level is below 50 percent, in 2012, for example, it was above," the economist tells "Vreme" Goran Radosavljevic.
The difference, he adds, has increased and shows a decrease standards pensioners in relation to other citizens.
According to the data available on the website Ministry of Finance, the average net salary in the period from January to May 2025 was 107.199, while the average pension at the same time was 50.685 dinars.
According to the calculation, the average pension this year is 47,3 percent of the average salary.
Pensions are losing the race.
If we compare last year's amounts, the average pension reached about 47 percent of the average salary, and the year before it was even lower - about 44,5 percent of the average salary.
From 2019, when the average pension was 47,9 percent of the average salary, there is a decline in the ratio of these two categories by several percent until 2024.
"In 2022, it will reach 42 percent. At that moment, they (representatives of the authorities) realize that pensioners are fiercely impoverished and the reduction of the gap is starting", says Radosavljević.
If we go back 10 years, the ratio of average salaries and pensions in 2015 was 52,2 percent, and the year before in 2014, average pensions were 54,08 percent of the average salary, according to data from the Ministry of Finance.
In 2014, pensions were reduced as part of "savings measures".
In previous years, the gap between salaries and pensions was smaller - and pensions reached up to 55 percent of the average salary. It was like that in 2012, when average pensions reached 55,6 percent of average salaries. A year before that, in 2011, that percentage was 56 percent.
"The average pension should not fall below 50 percent of the average salary. So, today you have a salary of 100.000 dinars and tomorrow you retire - life should not be twice as bad or more than that," says Radosavljević.
As he adds, the fact is that pensioners have more money than before, but he cannot claim whether they can buy more than before.
"Relative to other categories of residents, do pensioners live better than before, if we compare with the average salary? They don't. They live worse," says Radosavljević.
As he adds, it should be borne in mind that a large number of pensioners have a lower than average pension.
What are pensions like in Serbia?
According to the PIO fund data, the average pension in Serbia in June 2025 was 50.675 dinars, and about 60 percent of pensioners received less than the average amount that month, that is, about 990.000 out of about 1.660.000 pensioners in Serbia.
Slightly more than half a million pensioners receive less than 30.000 dinars per month.
In June, 10.000 people lived with less than 58.060 dinars in their pension check, according to data from the PIO Fund.
On the other hand, 125.112 people received pensions above one hundred thousand dinars in June.
The average salary in June, according to the data of the Republic Institute of Statistics, was 107.075 dinars, and the median salary was 83.525 dinars, which means that 50 percent of employees earned up to the specified amount.
