Novalić: I don't want to lie to citizens, crisis is inevitable, but we will save all we can

(Patria) - Prime Minister of the Federation of BiH Fadil Novalić said that the FBiH Government's economic measures will certainly mitigate the economic decline, but that the crisis and major damage are impossible to avoid.

"Nobody would want more than I do at this moment to be able to say: there are measures by which we can completely bypass this crisis and return things to normal. Unfortunately, that is not possible. I don't want to lie to citizens. False hopes and thoughtless reassurances are very dangerous," said Novalić.

He points out that we have seen how some governments denied the very danger of the coronavirus, mocking it and claiming that everything would be fine, and then they had bigger problems than if they had admitted the truth from the beginning. The same applies to the economic pandemic.

"The truth is bitter and difficult, but we started from it. This is like a match in which we are inevitably losing, but advancing is possible if we avoid a heavy defeat, if we lose by a minimal margin. That is the only way to win in such a situation. Our goal is to mitigate the loss, because we cannot avoid it. We will not be able to measure the effects of economic measures against what we had before (e.g., number of jobs or GDP), but rather against what we would have lost if we hadn't implemented these measures. Or if we had implemented some other, hasty and thoughtless measures," added Novalić.

Some suggest, he adds, that we spend everything we have in the budget in the next three months, so as to cover net salaries and contributions for everyone.

"First of all, the Federation does not have that much money, because we will not reduce pensions and disability benefits and redirect them to the economy. Besides, even if we had money to squander (and we don't), no one can say with certainty that this will pass in three months. Even if the pandemic passes by then, the economic crisis certainly will not. In a naive and hasty desire to save everything immediately, we could very quickly end up with nothing. Spending everything from the budget immediately, and leaving both the state and the economy with nothing, in three months. It is impossible to save everything, we cannot avoid major damage, but we will save a lot. There will be layoffs even after the law is adopted, but we will reduce them; we will slow down and stop negative trends as much as we can. When we cover contributions for everyone, we will stabilize the situation. Things will still be very difficult, the most difficult since the war, I don't want to tell fairy tales, but we will make maximum efforts and save all that we can. I guarantee that," concluded Prime Minister Novalić, writes Patria.