Vucic: Serbia has highest GDP growth rate in Europe

KNJAZEVAC - Serbian President Aleksandar Vucic said on Friday Serbia had registered the highest economic growth rate in Europe in Q2 2026, with 3.6 pct real GDP growth y-o-y.

"In Q2, Serbia saw the highest growth in Europe, but in the second half of this year, it is currently number one in Europe, with the highest economic growth rate. In Q2, we grew 3.6 pct, or 3.4 in total in the first half of the year," Vucic told reporters during a visit to the Knjazevac municipality, eastern Serbia.

"Serbia is number one right now, Lithuania is in the number two position and those that follow are far below us. The only country that can overtake us is Ireland, but that is not realistic - it is due to multinational companies, and not due to real growth rates. So, it is incredible, we did not expect this to happen in the first half of the year. We believed we can be in third place, but we broke into the number one position when it comes to the growth rate," Vucic said.

If Serbia maintains the current growth rate, it will have GDP growth of over 4 pct next year, he added.

He also said he expected a MOL-Gazprom neft deal on an acquisition of a Russian majority stake in NIS by MOL to be finalised in the coming days and that he would likely discuss this with Russian President Vladimir Putin and Hungarian PM Peter Magyar.

"We expect the deal to be finalised in the coming days. I will probably also speak with the Russian president and the Hungarian PM - Putin and Peter Magyar. I hope we will finish this," he added.