Serbia records highest GDP growth in Europe – Strategy
Serbia: Serbia has the highest GDP growth in Europe
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Despite the difficult circumstances due to the pandemic, the Republic of Serbia not only shows positive economic indicators, but also records the highest GDP growth in Europe and ranks first among 38 economies.
The three main macroeconomic variables (with GDP): industry, exports and imports, and retail trade, show that the Serbian economy is growing even under these unfavorable circumstances.
The strong export growth is the consequence of a sharp increase in exports of manufactured goods (by almost 27%), while the pursuit of solid growth will be supported by further growth in investment in sectors oriented towards the export, as well as by a recovery in external demand (with the vaccination process in the world).
In addition, over the January-May period, industry grew by 10.3% and retail trade by nearly 13%.
During the pandemic, the implementation of infrastructure projects continued. The share of state capital investments in GDP rose to 5.4% in 2020, from 4.9% in 2019, while in 2021 they are expected to reach 7% of GDP.
The European Bank for Reconstruction and Development (EBRD) also raised Serbia’s growth forecast for this year to 6%, twice as high as its September 2020 estimate.
The EBRD stresses that national economic activity will be strongly supported by additional public spending on health subsidies for salaries and one-off payments to retirees and other segments of the population.
The structure of the economy is specific to Serbia, a large part is made up of activities such as agriculture and food industry, which grew during the crisis. However, Serbia has a very small share of tourism in GDP, as well as automotive and other industries most affected by the crisis.
In addition, strong anti-crisis measures, mainly fiscal, but also a monetary policy that will continue in 2021, as well as relatively soft anti-epidemiological measures from mid-May 2020, and favorable trade relations have further improved. Serbia’s position.
It can be concluded as realistic that Serbia can expect an improvement in the economic parameters over the next five years, which will be reflected in the growth of the standard of living; wages, pensions, etc.
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