Cadez: Serbia has demonstrated resilience, economic flexibility in crisis times

BELGRADE - In crisis times, Serbia has demonstrated that it is a resilient country with a flexible economy, Chamber of Commerce and Industry of Serbia (PKS) President Marko Cadez said on Tuesday, noting that green transformation and digitalisation posed the biggest challenges for maintaining the competitiveness of the national economy.

Speaking at a joint session of the PKS Assembly and Executive Board, Cadez said Serbia had maintained its macroeconomic stability and that its FDI inflow was growing steadily.

He noted that Serbia had built a business environment in which continuous investments were possible.

"The credit rating is BB+ with a positive outlook and inflation has slowed down significantly. The indicators are real GDP growth of 2.5 pct in 2023 and 4-5 pct growth over the medium term," Cadez said.

The unemployment rate is extremely low and amounted to 9 pct at the end of Q3 2023, he noted.

"Between January and September 2023, the services trade surplus exceeded 2 bln euros, largely due to the impact of the IT sector," he said.

Hopefully, a trend that will normalise the high interest rates will arrive in Serbia from the euro zone, Cadez also said.

Great business opportunities await us in 2024, he said, adding that Expo 2027 would bring large infrastructure investments.

Cadez also highlighted the significance of new FTAs with China, the UAE and Egypt.