Belgrade University Professor Dragan Djuricin described as good news the European Commission’s decision to raise its forecast for Serbia’s GDP growth in 2016 from 1.6 to 2 percent, adding this would strengthen the country’s credibility in the eyes of investors and its credit rating.
In February this year, the European Commission forecasted Serbia’s GDP growth would stand at 1.6 percent, but the figure has been raised by 0.4 percentage points in the latest report.
“Since 2008, Serbia has gone through three successive recessions. In 2015, it emerged from recession and posted an economic growth of 0.8 percent. The IMF projection for this year is 1.5 percent, and the government’s projection – 2 percent. Hence, the Commission’s upgrade to 2 percent is in line with the government’s projection and makes it credible,” Djuricin told Tanjug.
One of the main reasons for the upgrade is the recent successful privatization of Serbia’s sole steel mill Zelezara Smederevo, and the firms expected to be affected by the positive development, he added, noting that Serbia would have to achieve a GDP growth of 6 percent by 2030 to achieve the advanced EU economies’ income per capita levels, according to the IMF.
Source; SerbGov
