President of the Association of Economists of Serbia (SES), Aleksandar Vlahovic, said today that the most important thing for Serbia is the speed with which the European Union (EU) economy, particularly Germany’s and Italy’s, will recover, considering that two-thirds of trade and investments come from EU countries.
“Serbia has two main trade partners in the EU – namely Italy and Germany- so the recovery of our country largely depends on the recovery of their economies,” Vlahović stressed, announcing this year’s Kopaonik Business Forum, organized by SES from 24 to 27 May, which will be held at the Metropol Hotel in Belgrade in a hybrid format.
According to him, in addition to the support programme and the traditional structure of the Serbian economy, this is the third factor that will dominantly influence this year’s growth of the Serbian economy.
Vlahovic also said that the fact that the Serbian economy’s decline is smaller compared to Europe’s is a consequence of its traditional structure where agriculture, industry, construction and energy are more resistant to the disruption of global supply chains and are not so dependent on the international market.
The second reason is attributed to the state’s massive direct intervention to help the business sector, which amounted to 11% of GDP last year, with the National Bank also playing an important role with its measures. Vlahovic added that Serbia will probably have economic growth of over 5% this year, but it will also have the largest fiscal deficit, which will stand at 7% following the state budget review.
(eKapija, 20.05.2021)
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