There have been two stages linked to poverty measurement activities in Serbia. The first stage was characterized by two consecutive Surveys on the Living Standard of the Population (SLSP) conducted in 2002 and 2003 at the request of the Government of the Republic of Serbia and with professional assistance provided by the World Bank. The Poverty Reduction Strategy was drafted in the period 2002/03 based on the key poverty-related findings obtained from the SLSP.

The second stage was initiated with the adoption of a strategic decision in 2004 to base poverty statistics on the data obtained from the Household Budget Survey (HBS) which is regularly conducted by the Republic Statistical Office (whereas the Surveys on the Living Standard of the Population were conducted by a private survey agency in 2002 and 2003). The decision ensures full national ownership and indispensable long-term continuity in monitoring the poverty data.

The Republic Statistical Office shall, in the course of May and June 2007, shall conduct the Survey on the Living Standard of the Population at the territory of the Republic of Serbia. The consultative process with regard to the survey questionnaires has been conducted with the Deputy Prime Minister’s Poverty Reduction Strategy Implementation Focal Point.

Preliminary data shall be published by end 2007 and the beginning of 2008, as well as the basic tables with survey results (“technical report”) at the webpage of the Republic Statistical Office.

There are significant methodological differences between the abovementioned surveys. The first set of discrepancies derives from the difference in time periods in which consumption data are collected. The data of the HBS are collected throughout a year, while the SLSP data were collected only within one month (June). Although both surveys are based on a diary which contains food expenditures, it is important to note that the HBS diary is maintained in 15 days, while the SLSP diary is maintained over the period of seven days.

The HBS followed the standard approach recommended by the Eurostat, the institution of the European Commission in charge of statistics, and in this way more detailed consumption-related data were collected. The HBS form is somewhat shorter, however it provided the opportunity for the interviewers to perform more active control over the obtained data.

Unlike the Household Budget Survey, the Survey of the Living Standards of the Population provides more detailed data on using health care services, social programs, education services, labor activity.

Another group of discrepancies between the two surveys derives from measuring the set of services in relation to the ownership of property and non-durables. Unlike the SLSP, the HBS does not contain enough data for assessing the value of imputed apartment/house rent, as well as for the evaluation of services in relation to using non-durables, wherefore these consumption categories have been excluded from the analysis in this survey.

It is not possible to compare the data of the two surveys due to the abovementioned discrepancies. Due to the problems in the realization of the Household Budget Survey in the period 2004-2005 it is not possible to calculate the poverty trends 2004-2006 based on the survey.

However, as a result of improving the Household Budget Survey, a continued monitoring of trends has been enabled as of 2006 onwards.