BIRODI: Serbia’s central bank did not confirm NGOs received €1.3 billion from abroad, as Dragović claims

BIRODI says the €1.3 billion figure being presented in Serbian media as foreign funding for NGOs does not mean what its proponents claim. The Bureau for Social Research cited two official responses from the National Bank of Serbia, or NBS, concerning foreign inflows between 2021 and 2025.

In its first response, dated Aug. 21, the NBS said foreign inflows totaling €1.3 billion went to institutional units classified under sector S.15, the sector for nonprofit institutions serving households. That classification, BIRODI stressed, includes far more than citizens’ associations commonly described as NGOs.

The category also covers professional associations, academic societies, consumer groups, political parties, churches and religious communities, cultural organizations, amateur and recreational sports clubs, charities and other nonprofit legal entities. The NBS later told BIRODI, in a response dated Sept. 4, 2026, that it had no basis for breaking the data down into categories not recognized by the statistical classification and methodology it uses.

The central bank also emphasized that its existing data cannot show whether one category or individual legal entities within sector S.15 received larger foreign inflows than others. BIRODI said this directly challenges political activist and Serbian Sovereigntists leader Vukša Dragović’s presentation of the figure as money received by NGOs.

BIRODI also pointed to what it called an obvious inconsistency in Dragović’s public figures. Adding the amounts he cites for foreign funding and funds awarded through Serbian state competitions produces a total far below €1.3 billion, it said. The comparison is also methodologically wrong because the NBS figure covers foreign inflows only, while awards from Serbia’s government and other domestic public institutions are outside that total.

The bureau said public discussion must distinguish between foreign funding for NGOs, domestic public funding for NGOs and total foreign-currency inflows to the entire S.15 sector. It plans to ask media outlets that repeated the claim to publish a response under Article 95 of Serbia’s Law on Public Information and Media.

“

When the amounts that Dragović publicly presents as funds NGOs received from abroad are simply added to the funds they received through state competitions, the total is far below €1.3 billion.