Tabakovic: Serbian inflation projected to enter target tolerance band in May

BELGRADE - National Bank of Serbia (NBS) Governor Jorgovanka Tabakovic said on Tuesday Serbian inflation was expected to enter the target tolerance band as early as in May.

"Inflation in Serbia has been on a solid downward trajectory, and over the previous months it has slowed even faster than we anticipated," Tabakovic said at the presentation of the May 2024 Inflation Report.

"In view of such movements, our current projection expects inflation to enter the bounds of the target tolerance band already in May, while the previous projection expected this to transpire in mid-year.

At the same time, economic activity in the first quarter of 2024 picked up pace beyond our expectations, to 4.6 pct y-o-y, giving us reasons to believe that we will achieve a 3.5 pct GDP growth rate this year, whereas in the previous projection we forecast growth in the 3-4 pct range," she said.

"All of this indicates that our monetary policy was adequate and that it also ensured price stability in the medium-term, a continuation of positive economic growth rates and preservation of NPL ratios close to the historical lowest level of 3 pct," Tabakovic said.

"Relative to its peak from March last year, headline inflation this April was more than three times lower, measuring 5.0 pct. It slowed further owing to a smaller increase in food prices amid the easing of global cost-push pressures, which stood below headline inflation as of February and measured 2.9 pct y-o-y in April," she also said.