Dejan Šoškić, a 59-year-old economist and university professor, is being mentioned as a possible candidate from the Student List for the presidency of the new Serbian government. He is a former governor of the National Bank of Serbia (Narodna banka Srbije), a post he held from July 2010, remaining at the head of the central bank for two years.
Šoškić was born in 1967 in Belgrade. He graduated in economics as the best student of his generation, then completed his master’s and doctoral degrees, and furthered his studies in the United States as a Fulbright scholar. He is now a full professor at the Faculty of Economics in Belgrade.
He stepped down from his post as governor of the National Bank of Serbia by submitting his resignation after the Progressives took power in 2012. In his resignation, he warned that changes to the law threatened the independence of the central bank. His term was also marked by the Agrobank affair: the National Bank introduced compulsory administration in that bank at the end of 2011, subsequently revoking its operating licence. Agrobank ended up in bankruptcy in 2012, with losses estimated in the hundreds of millions of euros. Šoškić was not convicted in connection with the Agrobank affair.
Before taking the helm of the central bank, Šoškić held a minority ownership stake in the company Centar za investicije i finansije, though he claimed that this ownership had been duly reported to the competent agency. The Serbian Progressive Party (SNS) also issued allegations of irregularities in academic documentation regarding his appointment as a full professor. The Faculty of Economics rejected these allegations, stating that the procedure had been conducted lawfully and transparently.
Vučić and his associates have been criticising Šoškić for years over the weakening of the dinar during his term as governor. Šoškić responds by warning that economic indicators from different periods are being used for political settlements.
