“The inflation has been slowing down, and by the end of the year, it will remain low and stable”, the National Bank of Serbia’s Governor, Jorgovanka Tabakovic said at the presentation of the Bank’s report. The gross domestic product will grow by at least 3.5 percent this and next year.
The governor is confident that economic indicators would continue being positive, both in 2018 and in 2019. The only things that can challenge the stability of the Dinar and the prices are higher crude oil prices and uncertainties in international capital flows.
Economic activity has been growing for the tenth consecutive quarter which facilitated higher investments and a reduction in the number of non-performing loans. According to the National Bank’s forecasts, inflation will be at about three percent this year and next year.
“In April, consumer prices grew 1.1 percent year-on-year, with a base inflation of 0.8 percent year-on-year, which is lower than our forecast from our February inflation report. This is primarily due to lower prices and food prices”, says Tabakovic.
There is also an increase in investments and imports, yet the export to import ratio is still good.
“About 60 percent of the growth in imports is attributed to the import of productions materials for, with the raw materials used in industry are dominant. Equipment takes the second place and this is due to investment growth. The import of consumer goods occupies the third place, and covers 1/6 of the entire import”, says Milan Trajkovic from the NBS.
The net FDI have been growing since the beginning of the year, and the NBS estimates that, at the end of this year, the value of the FDI in Serbia would have amounted to 2.6 billion euro.
(RTS, 17.05.2018)
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