Serbian economy was successful in pandemic year - here's when we could go back to pre-crisis levels

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According to economic indicators, Serbia has had a difficult year, but it will end better than predicted by international financial institutions at the beginning of the crisis, according to the economic bulletin "Monthly Analysis and Trends" (MAT) from the beginning of 2021.

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The decline of the Serbian economy in the year of the coronavirus pandemic will be around one percent, which is the smallest drop in GDP in Europe, MAT editor Ivan Nikolic assessed.

He his estimation for the Biznis.rs portal is that such results are a consequence of a generous package of assistance from the Serbian government to suppress the negative effects of the pandemic, but also the fact that the Serbian economy entered the crisis amid a high economic growth, while agriculture has had good results for the second year in a row.

During 2020, the Government of Serbia allocated more than 5.1 billion euros through several packages of assistance to the economy, especially to small and medium enterprises, said Minister of Finance Sinisa Mali.

According to Nikolic, that aid amounting to about 12.7 percent of GDP was the largest in the region, and when it comes to te help of the state in suppressing the negative consequences of the pandemic, EU member states like Romania, Bulgaria, Croatia, the Czech Republic and Latvia were behind Serbia.

Speaking about what the economy will be like in 2021, experts point out that it's very important for Serbia to maintain a high level of foreign direct investment and recall that Serbia ended 2020 with about 2.8 billion euros of investments, which is more than 60 percent of the total investments made in the Western Balkans, HINA reports.

Economic experts assess that Serbia, if there are no additional economic breakdowns, could return to the economic level from before the pandemic crisis as soon as by the end of 2021.

(Telegraf Biznis)