Serbian economy picking up, planned 2.5 pct GDP growth achievable - council

BELGRADE - Serbian PM Ana Brnabic on Monday chaired a session of the council tasked with coordinating activities and measures for promoting GDP growth, which concluded that the Serbian economy was picking up and that, at the present rate, a planned 2.5 pct GDP growth was achievable in 2023 despite a major economic slowdown in Europe and, especially, in countries Serbia gravitated towards the most.

In Q2 2023, the Serbian economy saw 1.7 pct growth compared to approx. 0.5 pct growth of the EU economies and the good trend was continued in July, when growth amounted to 2.5 pct, the Serbian government said in a statement.

The construction and the IT sectors rose by 15.1 pct and 10.1 pct, respectively, in Q2.

Serbia registered a 2.3 pct increase of employment in Q2 and its employed population now totals 2,364,140 - over half a million more compared to 2014.

Procedural improvements in Belgrade, Novi Sad, Nis and Kragujevac have resulted in major steps forward when it comes to issuing construction permits and certificates of compliance with location requirements, additionally stimulating economic growth.

The council also discussed foreign work force and investments as there are 72,876 foreign nationals in Serbia with temporary permits and 2,692 of them requested work permits in August alone, the statement said.

Despite global challenges, the level of FDI is expected to match, or perhaps even exceed, last year's level, the council said.

In spite of the numerous challenges, indicators suggest that Serbia is dealing with them successfully and positioning itself as a stable economic partner in the region and beyond, the council said.

It also said it would continue to monitor developments and implement strategies to enable sustainable and stable economic growth.