Serbia’s 2018 GDP growth projection revised up to 4 percent

BELGRADE, Aug. 15 (Xinhua) — The National Bank of Serbia (NBS) revised its projection of the country’s gross domestic product from 3.5 to 4 percent this year due to higher industrial growth, said the governor of NBS Jorgovanka Tabakovic on Wednesday.
Tabakovic said at the presentation of August inflation report that Serbia has transformed into a “stable and promising economy” and that for 11 consecutive quarters the country marks growth.
“According to our latest projections, this year its growth rate is going to be 4 percent. This is 0.5 percentage point more than what was envisaged by our May projection, owing to a faster than projected growth in construction and agriculture — on the production side, and a faster pick up in investment — on the expenditure side,” Tabakovic said, according to a press release of NBS.
She also predicted that such trends will continue in the period ahead, “given that favorable conditions support growth of investments and exports and, by extension, higher employment and living standard of citizens”.
“Most importantly, the results achieved are long-term and lasting,” Tabakovic estimated.
Tabakovic explained the revision of GDP growth with “sizeable investment growth”, adding that the good prospects of Serbian economy were also highlighted in the assessment of the European Commission
European Commission sees Serbia as the greatest contributor to the Western Balkan economic growth in 2018. Progress in the real sector spills over to the labor market as well, with private sector employment posting a constant rise and the number of the unemployed plunging to its 20-year low,” Tabakovic said.