Living By The Hour

The Federal Statistics Bureau announced on Wednesday that the October inflation rate, measured against retail prices, stood at 1,895 %. That is a new record of the new Yugoslavia. However, if the costs of living are taken as a criterion, then the October inflation rate amounts to 2,050 %. The retail prices in October this year are 19 million times higher than in October last year, while this year's average rise of prices is 38 million times higher than the average rise marked in 1992. If the costs of living are taken into consideration, then the differences are even more obvious: when compared to the prices in October last year, the prices are 21 million times higher October this year, while the average rise of prices when compared to the last year's average amounts to 42 million times! One could easily omit the exclamation mark, as the opposition has more or less ignored the astronomic inflation rate. The people, on the other hand, have decided to follow the example set by the state: they started buying for themselves, or to resell, so that it now takes up to 15 hours to cross the YugoslavHungarian border; one has to wait from 5 to 6 hours to get into Bulgaria and 3 to 4 hours on the border crossing en route to Skopje.

Two things at least indicate that a rapid rise in the inflation rate is to be expected in the upcoming period. Firstly, the government has ``freed the prices'' from the state control. The Government of Nikola Sainovic, the Serbian Prime Minister, has finally admitted that it has added ``fuel to the fire,'' i.e. that it has cause shortages. The goods are being returned to the shops, but their prices are higher by at least 500 %. The Serbian Government has admitted having conducted a wrong policy of controlling the prices, so that from now on only the prices of flour and bread will be controlled by the state.

Meanwhile, the people in Serbia and in the rest of the Federal Republic of Yugoslavia are beginning to live according to the folk wisdom, such as: ``get whatever you can,'' ``better late than never,'' ``anything is better than nothing,''... The dilemma is both valid and well founded, considering the fact that the Serbian regime has hit the rock bottom, the proof of which is the levy exacted from the new rich, the increasing number of whom have either disappeared or been killed. Whoever does not approve of guessing and unreliable versions as regards who is collecting rackets on whose behalf, it is sufficient that he or she takes a good look at the Thursday's and Friday's papers and will see what the freeing of prices heralds. There is not a single director in the chain starting with a slaughterhouse to a regular shop who has not announced a better supply of goods, but also a rise in current prices of over 500 per cent.

In the language of everyday expenses this means that one will be able to purchase two kilos of the second class veal of pork for about 1.4 million dinars, which is the newly established minimum salary for October. Statisticians claim that an average family has approximately 1.4 average monthly salaries on its disposal. If the lowest and the highest income relate as 1:3, as is the case now, it is easy to figure out that officially no one will be able to make ends meet, from the first to the last day of the month. The same day when the agreement on a minimum salary, agreed by the Serbian Government and the unions, was announced, a daily supply of foodstuffs for a four member family costs more than 9 million dinars.

Whatever happened in October, along with what is to happen in November and the forthcoming months, is a consequence of all policies of the Socialist authorities which have for years now continued to print money without any kind of real security behind it. One should not waste either space or reader's time to prove this: if all relevant monetary facts, such as the volume of money, have become a state secret, it is clear that the Serbian state is consciously and deliberately conducting the policy of destroying the national currency.

The National Bank of Yugoslavia (NBJ) (which is actually run by Serbia) is refusing to reveal its main transactions, and seems to be expanding its activities. For example, it has been more than a year that the data regarding the work of the national railway company has not been accessible to the official statistics. The general public has no idea how much goods and how many passengers are transported, which is important not only because of the company and its director (he is General Secretary of the Serbian Socialist PartySPS) but also because of the index pertaining to the trends of the national economy. Since a ban on revealing the data about the SerbYugoslav railway has been imposed for dubious reasons, VREME has learned that basically there is no usual work. Experts on railway traffic claim that the railway is faced with a physical blockade. There are two reasons. Firstly, 80 % of wagons are occupied by all sorts of goods, stocked in them (this should not come as a surprise, since almost everyone knows that the Smederevo steelworks can hardly breathe because of the stocks of cigarettes). Secondly, both engines and wagons are at a standstill since machine oil has not been secured in sufficient quantities.

The rule of the Socialists, from the last to the present elections, equals a catastrophe. Everything has marked a drastic drop, but Milosevic's Socialists should be given the credit that they really know what they are doing: robbing the people in all possible ways is their only means of their staying in power and creating an illusion of a ``tolerably'' successful economy. But under the sanctions, the authorities would say. Nevertheless, wakening is yet to come.

A Year of the Socialist Rule

A number of average monthly salaries necessary to purchase an item

(October 1992August 1993)

Item October 1992 August 1993

Couch 3.2 6.4 Dining suite 5.7 11.7 (1 table + 6 chairs) Washing machine 5.4 9.9 Freezer 5.6 16.6 TV set (56cm screen) 4.3 8.6 TV set (66cm screen) 6.4 14.8 CarJugo 45 33.6 266.9