Serbian financial sector expects same one-year-ahead inflation

BELGRADE - According to an Ipsos survey, the Serbian financial sector expects inflation to be 8 pct in March 2024, unchanged relative to the previous six surveys, the National Bank of Serbia (NBS) has said.

In a statement, the central bank said an April Bloomberg survey reported lower one-year-ahead expected inflation (7.0 pct).

"Short-term inflation expectations of corporates (one year ahead) have stabilised since September at around 10.0 pct, which is also the value recorded in the March survey.

Two- and three-year-ahead inflation expectations of both the financial and corporate sectors are considerably lower than those for one year ahead. Two-year-ahead inflation expectations of the financial sector remained the same as in the previous survey (5.0 pct), while three-year-ahead expectations continued moving within the NBS target tolerance band, at the level of 4 pct. Medium-term corporate expectations stayed unchanged, at 7.0 pct for two years ahead and 5.0 pct for three years ahead."

The survey results on two- and three-year-ahead expectations indicate that both financial and corporate sectors expect inflationary pressures to subside and inflation to gradually return to within the target tolerance band in the medium run, the NBS also said.