30th Kopaonik Business Forum opens

MT KOPAONIK - The 30th Kopaonik Business Forum, hosted by the Serbian Association of Economists (SES), opened on Monday.

Speaking about key achievements since last year's forum, SES President Aleksandar Vlahovic said the performance of Western Balkan economies in 2022 had been significantly poorer compared to 2021.

"In the first half of last year, growth of economic activity was enviably high but the positive trend was stopped in the second half of the year. Right now, it is very difficult to determine last year's overall growth, but we can say with certainty that it will not be higher than 2.7 pct, which is two and a half times lower compared to 2021," Vlahovic said.

He noted that growth projections for 2023 ranged from 2.2 pct to 2.6 pct and that Serbia had registered 2.3 pct growth in 2022 - or about half of the projection for that year - and that industrial production had been up by 1.5 pct and that the overall deficit at the end of the year had been at 3.3 pct of GDP.

He added that the projected deficit for 2023 was 3.9 pct and said it was probably achievable considering entry parameters, but that a 2.5 pct growth projection was questionable in view of negative trends carried over from Q4 2022.