Average Serbian inflation currently stands at 4 percent, up from the pre-COVID levels of 2 percent, according to an end-of-the-year report released by the National Bank of Serbia, although core inflation has hit the 9 percent average, with November hitting the 15.1 percent mark.
“In November inflation stood at 15.1 percent year-on-year,” the report states, adding that “almost 70 percent of year-on-year inflation was determined by factors monetary policy cannot influence.”
The bank added that COVID-19 and the war in Ukraine have had a “severe impact on Serbia compared to most European countries.”
On the upside, the National Bank stated that GDP growth was back on the path of sustainable growth in the medium term.” That said, the bank revised down previous projections to the 2-3 percent range.
Likewise, inflation is projected to take a “higher path” and is projected to peak in Q1 2023, although it should then gradually begin to slow.
That said, FDI inflows were considered diversified by region, with much coming from both the EU and the Asia-Pacific region. This led to EUR 3.5 bln in FDI with a net inflow of EUR 3.25 bln from January to October 2022, with increases coming from China, the US, Russia, Turkey and Switzerland, although the bulk of FDI (57 percent) originates in the EU.
Photo of the National Bank of Serbia by LukaP at en.wikipedia, CC BY-SA 3.0 <https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/3.0>, via Wikimedia Commons
