Money from the state budget has kept many small entrepreneurs "above water" in the past period, but the corona epidemic has no end in sight so far, so nervousness grips not only businessmen and consumers, but also, it seems, people who create economic policy.
A few days ago, the new head of the European Central Bank, Christine Lagarde, said that the economic crisis caused by the coronavirus pandemic will "profoundly change" the economy in the world, and above all, it will "accelerate digitization in services and automation of industry", and that in this sense, "Europe in in an excellent position" because it has already advanced on that path in accordance with the necessities already observed earlier. At the same time, she added that the crisis "will reduce supply chains by about 35 percent and lead to an increase in robotization in industry by 70 to 75 percent."
We in Serbia, as in most other developing countries, do not have many reasons to be happy about this assessment of "excellent European position", if it can be accepted as comprehensive and far-sighted. Since Europe does not live only from the internal market but to a large extent from the global one, the question arises what the aforementioned "reduction of supply chains" can bring to many poor countries, apart from a new economic lag and a decline or stagnation in the purchasing power of their large population. Who will then market a significant part of the products of the European "robotized industry" in the future?
Of course, it is not worth worrying about the fact that robots will replace many jobs in Europe, which are now still filled by guest workers from countries with chronic unemployment, but Lagarde could be criticized for being carried away by the illusory idea that Europe can keep in a "deeply changed world" the position of the most comfortable and pleasant continent for the life of its citizens, while the rest of the world would sink into new poverty.
That even in Europe itself, that is, in the European Union, there is still no unified view on the period of economic recovery after Covid-19, it was also seen at the beginning of July, at the summit of the countries of the Visegrad Group in Warsaw. As reported by news agencies, at that summit, Polish Prime Minister Mateusz Morowiecki particularly emphasized that funds from the EU fund intended for economic recovery (they are talking about 750 billion euros) must be distributed "flexibly, according to the needs of the member states", and that the countries that were successful in the fight against the Covid-pandemic, they must not be "punished" with smaller aid quotas. When the Visegrad Group says that the money must be distributed "flexibly", it is in line with its hope that it is numerous enough to be able to extract more money from the EU than is offered to it and that it can suppress the idea that this aid is also "conditional" on the state in national judiciaries (rule of law) and in respect of civil liberties (principle of democratic values) in member states (Poland, Czech Republic, Slovakia and Hungary). Allegedly, when it comes to respecting the rule of law and democratic values, "objective criteria cannot be created."
I mention these two "excerpts" from the world discussion on how to save the world economy from the corona crisis only because it gives the impression that everyone feels that "deep economic changes" are coming inexorably, but few know what to do so that the therapy does not beat the patient. . This is particularly visible here in Serbia. Namely, Finance Minister Siniša Mali, as if by pre-election inertia, continues to talk about how much the state has helped employees and citizens, and points out that it is about 2,3 billion euros in aid. Ahead of the payment of the third tranche of assistance for the payment of the minimum wage for 1.042.114 employees (on July 8), he points out that a total of 94 billion dinars or about 800 million euros have been set aside for this purpose. This support is really significant, but how will we proceed in the coming months? Money from the state budget has kept many small entrepreneurs "above water" in the past period, but the corona-epidemic has no end in sight, so nervousness grips not only businessmen and consumers, but also, it seems, people who create economic policy. Because the money that the state distributes must first be collected from those same businessmen and citizens, so we can find ourselves in a vicious cycle from which there is no rational way out.
(novimagazin.rs)
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