Foreign companies continued to invest intensively in Serbia and in the first ten months they invested EUR 3.7 billion, which is about 8% more than last year. Chinese investments, although the largest individual, were cut in half compared to last year, while Germany, traditionally our biggest investor for many years, invested only EUR 117.6 million.
According to officially published data for the nine months of 2023, the inflow of foreign direct investments (FDI) into Serbia amounted to EUR 3.2 billion (net FDI EUR 3 billion). Preliminary data for October indicate that this inflow, viewed from the beginning of the year to the end of October, exceeded EUR 3.7 billion.
Whether it will reach last year’s record 4.4 billion EUR remains to be seen.
As they point out, the NBS conservatively projects inflows from FDI and, according to their latest projection for this year, the projected inflow of FDI to Serbia is about EUR 4 billion, that is, about 5% of GDP.
However, developments in the course of the year so far and our new estimates for the remaining part of the year indicate that this inflow will almost certainly be greater than projected, that is, it will exceed EUR 4 billion – say the NBS.
By far the most investments come from the EU, but also Asian countries, primarily China, are increasing investments in our country. The ratio is approximately two to one, as the inflow from European countries amounts to 65.8%, and from Asian countries 32.3%.
Observed by country, during the first two quarters of 2023, the largest inflows of FDI to Serbia were recorded from China (EUR 592.6 million), the Netherlands (EUR 414.7 million), Romania (EUR 124.5 million), Great Britain (122, 5 million EUR), Germany (117.1 million EUR) and Austria (113.6 million EUR).
However, it should be borne in mind that significant investments can come from the Netherlands due to the fact that some foreign investors realize their investments from subsidiaries in the Netherlands due to tax benefits, even though the headquarters of the parent company is in another country.
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