Miroljub Labus

Labus was born in Mala Krsna, near Smederevo, PR Serbia, FPR Yugoslavia. He graduated from law school in 1970 from the University of Belgrade Faculty of Law. This was followed by two postgraduate qualifications in economics.

Labus began his career in academia as a university professor. In 1983, he was a Fulbright fellow at Cornell University.{{cite book |title=Annual Report |date=2002 |publisher=United States. J. William Fulbright Foreign Scholarship Board |page=19}}

Labus was a senior adviser at the Federal Statistics Bureau (Savezni zavod za statistiku) in Belgrade between 1986 and 1994.{{cite web |title=Founder - Miroljub Labus |url=http://www.belox.rs/en/articles/about-us/founder/ |website=belox.rs}} Since 1993, he has been a researcher at Belgrade's Economics Institute. He edited the Federal Bureau of Statistics's Economic Trend publication from 1990 to 1996, and the Belgrade Economics Institute's Economic Barometer from 1994 to 2000. Labus has also been involved with the National Bank of Yugoslavia and World Bank.

Already politically involved as a macroeconomic policy adviser to SFR Yugoslavia's federal government, he joined the recently established Democratic Party (DS) in 1990.

In 1992, Labus was elected as MP to the FR Yugoslavia's federal parliament. While in this role, he was also a member of the parliamentary Monetary Policy Committee. In 1994, he was promoted to Vice-President of the Democratic Party under Zoran Đinđić. He held this position until 1997.

In 1999, Labus became President of the Administrative Board of the G17 Plus movement. At this time, the G17 Plus movement was a lobby group focused on encouraging economic reforms within Serbia. G17 Plus soon become powerful, with significant public support. In 2000, he left the board of G17 Plus, taking up a position as Deputy Prime Minister of Yugoslavia and Minister for International Economic Relations (in the federal government following the overthrow of Slobodan Milošević).{{cite book |last1=Uvalic |first1=M. |title=Serbia's Transition: Towards a Better Future |date=2010 |publisher=Springer |isbn=9780230281745 |page=112 |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=UpJ9DAAAQBAJ&pg=PA112}}

Leading up to the 2002 Serbian presidential elections, it was apparent that the current Serbian Prime Minister, Zoran Đinđić, did not have the appeal to match Koštunica, another candidate. Đinđić agreed to back Koštunica's former ally, Labus, as an alternative candidate. In the resulting election, Koštunica defeated Labus. However, the election did not gain the required 50% voter turnout and the results were declared void. Labus continued on in his position for another year.

Labus continued working with G17 Plus and, in late 2002, he began transforming the lobby group into a full-fledged centrist political party, becoming its President. After the elections of December 2003, Labus and his party formed a minority coalition with the Democratic Party of Serbia and several other minor parties, in order to keep ultra-nationalist Tomislav Nikolić out of power. As a result, he retained his current positions. In 2006, Labus resigned from the position of President of G17 Plus party.{{cite book |last1=Bideleux |first1=Robert |last2=Jeffries |first2=Ian |title=The Balkans: A Post-Communist History |date=2007 |publisher=Routledge |isbn=9781134583287 |page=319 |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=G6iBAgAAQBAJ&pg=PA319}}

• Fundamentals of Economics, (1995, 1997) (Original: Osnovi ekonomije)
• Fundamentals of Political Economy, (with D. Šoškić) (1992) (Original: Osnovi političke ekonomije)
• Contemporary Political Economy (1990) (Original: Savremena politička ekonomija)
• General Equilibrium of Economy, (with D. Vujović) (1990) (Original: Opšta privredna ravnoteža)
• Social or Collective Ownership Rights (1987) (Original: Društvena ili kolektivna vlasnička prava)

{{reflist}}

• {{cite news|url=http://www.pressonline.co.rs/sr/vesti/vesti_dana/story/31478 |title=Delta nije monopolista |newspaper=Press |date=5 March 2008 |url-status=unfit |archiveurl=https://web.archive.org/web/20120315095639/http://www.pressonline.co.rs/sr/vesti/vesti_dana/story/31478 |archivedate=March 15, 2012 }}
• [http://www.politika.rs/rubrike/Ekonomija/Labus-radi-za-Mishkovica.sr.html Лабус ради за Мишковића], Politika, 7 March 2008

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Category:1947 births

Category:Living people

Category:Deputy prime ministers of Serbia

Category:Writers from Smederevo

Category:Democratic Party (Serbia) politicians

Category:G17 Plus politicians

Category:Candidates for President of Serbia

Category:Serbian economists

Category:Academic staff of the University of Belgrade

Category:University of Belgrade Faculty of Law alumni

Category:Politicians from Smederevo