Montenegro’s monthly budget revenues are currently sufficient only to cover salaries in state institutions, pensions, social benefits, and healthcare costs. The liquidity crisis is deepening, while the country’s debt crisis and potential public finance collapse are “knocking at the door,” warned Movement for Changes (PzP) leader Nebojša Medojević in a post on X (formerly Twitter).
Experts, he said, have warned that the government’s “populist, irrational, and anti-economic measures” adopted since 2020 have led to an escalation of unproductive public spending, turning into what he described as a wave of “consumer euphoria, populism, cheap demagoguery, ignorance, and increasingly blatant corruption at all levels of government and public enterprises.”
“We’ve reached a critical point: monthly budget revenues can now barely cover public sector wages, pensions, social benefits, and healthcare costs. There are no funds for material expenses, program budgets, subsidies, the capital budget, or other planned expenditures — all of that is being financed through borrowing,” Medojević stated.
According to him, the average monthly budget inflow in 2025 is around €230 million, while €238 million is spent each month on mandatory expenses, broken down as follows:
- Public sector wages: about €60 million per month (€718 million annually)
- Pensions (Pension Fund): about €65 million per month (€777 million annually)
- Social benefits: around €90 million per month, including social protection transfers
- Healthcare: around €39.5 million per month (€474 million annually)
“These expenditures are mandatory and total around €238 million monthly, which means there’s nothing left for other budgetary obligations without new borrowing,” Medojević said.
He also highlighted a worsening debt crisis in the private sector:
“The number of blocked companies and entrepreneurs has increased by more than 2,200 since the end of 2020, while the total amount of blocked debt has doubled — rising by almost €750 million.”
According to data from the Central Bank of Montenegro (CBCG), as of August 2025 there were 21,100 companies with frozen bank accounts, with a total debt of €1.52 billion. By comparison, at the end of 2020, there were 18,850 blocked entities with a combined debt of €771 million.
“The situation points to serious financial instability and the urgent need for measures to prevent the collapse of public finances and further deterioration of the business environment in Montenegro,” Medojević concluded.
