Serbia’s export structure in 2025 reveals an economy increasingly shaped by industrial manufacturing and tightly integrated into the production networks of the European Union. Despite a slowing pace of industrial growth and a series of disruptions in the energy sector, the country’s foreign trade continued to expand, demonstrating the resilience of its export-oriented manufacturing base. According to the latest macroeconomic assessment in MAT – Macroeconomic Analyses and Trends, February 2026, Serbia’s total foreign trade turnover reached €74.927 billion in 2025, representing an increase of 7.7% compared with the previous year.
Within this expansion, exports grew at a faster pace than imports, confirming the continued strengthening of Serbia’s industrial export capacity. Total exports reached €33.068 billion, representing a year-on-year increase of 8.4%, while imports reached €41.859 billion, increasing by 7.2%.
The result was a trade deficit of €8.791 billion, slightly higher than in the previous year but accompanied by a modest improvement in the coverage of imports by exports. In 2025, exports covered 79% of imports, compared with 78.1% in 2024.
These figures highlight a key structural feature of the Serbian economy: export growth is increasingly driven by a narrow group of industrial sectors that are deeply embedded in European supply chains. Manufacturing alone accounted for 87.6% of total exports, making it the dominant component of Serbia’s international trade.
The export performance of the manufacturing sector itself was robust. Over the course of 2025, manufacturing exports increased 8.7%, while in December alone the year-on-year increase accelerated to 13%. This expansion demonstrates that even amid industrial stagnation in parts of Europe, Serbian factories continue to serve as important suppliers of intermediate goods and components to European production networks.
At the center of this export expansion stands the automotive industry. The sector has become the single largest contributor to Serbia’s export growth and is now one of the most important pillars of the country’s industrial economy.
Exports from the automotive industry reached €4.057 billion in 2025, representing 12.3% of Serbia’s total exports. The sector recorded cumulative export growth of 32.5% during the year, while the year-on-year increase in December alone reached an extraordinary 103.5%.
This surge reflects the launch of production of the electric Fiat Grande Panda model at the factory in Kragujevac in early 2025. The introduction of this vehicle has transformed the dynamics of Serbia’s automotive sector, positioning the country as a manufacturing node in Europe’s rapidly expanding electric vehicle supply chain.
The geographic distribution of automotive exports illustrates Serbia’s integration into European industrial networks. Germany remains the largest destination, accounting for 30.5% of automotive exports, followed by Italy with 14% and Hungary with 9.5%.
The composition of exports within the sector further underscores its technological evolution. Nearly half of the sector’s exports consist of electrical equipment for motor vehicles, a category that includes components critical to modern electric and hybrid vehicles.
This specialization demonstrates how Serbia’s industrial base is gradually shifting from traditional mechanical assembly toward more technologically advanced automotive components.
The second major export engine of Serbia’s economy is the rubber and plastics industry. This sector plays a crucial role as a supplier of intermediate goods to automotive, construction, and consumer manufacturing industries across Europe.
During 2025, exports of rubber and plastic products increased by €405.5 million, accounting for approximately 17.5% of the total increase in manufacturing exports. The sector generated a substantial trade surplus of €1.098 billion, which represented an increase of €356.4 million compared with 2024.
Production in the sector also expanded rapidly. Output increased 16.6% during 2025, highlighting the growing importance of industrial materials and components within Serbia’s manufacturing ecosystem.
Germany once again emerges as the most important market for this sector, accounting for 12.6% of exports, followed by the United States with 9.5%.
Within the rubber and plastics industry, the production of tires represents the dominant export segment, accounting for approximately 44% of total exports in the sector.
However, this industry also illustrates the geopolitical and regulatory risks facing Serbian exporters. In December 2025, the United States imposed restrictions on imports of tires produced at the Linglong factory in Zrenjanin due to concerns regarding labor conditions in the production process.
Although the long-term economic impact of this decision remains uncertain, it highlights the vulnerability of globally integrated manufacturing sectors to regulatory actions in key export markets.
Beyond automotive and plastics manufacturing, several additional industrial sectors contributed significantly to Serbia’s export growth in 2025. Six manufacturing industries recorded export increases exceeding €100 million during the year.
These included:
- Production of food products, which recorded an export increase of €235.1 million.
- Manufacture of machinery and equipment, with export growth of €173.8 million.
- Production of pharmaceutical products, which increased exports by €172.2 million.
- Production of basic metals, which expanded exports by €137.8 million.
- Manufacture of chemicals and chemical products, with export growth of €121.8 million.
- Production of computers, electronic, and optical equipment, which recorded an export increase of €110.2 million.
Taken together, these industries illustrate the breadth of Serbia’s industrial export base, although they also reveal the concentration of export growth in a relatively limited number of sectors.
At the same time, several manufacturing industries experienced declining export performance during 2025. The most notable declines occurred in:
Manufacture of electrical equipment, where exports declined by €166.9 million, representing a 5% decrease.
Production of coke and petroleum products, where exports fell €66.4 million, a 14% decline.
Manufacture of wearing apparel, where exports declined €65.2 million, representing an 8% decrease.
Production of leather goods, where exports declined €10.1 million, representing a 2% decrease.
The decline in petroleum product exports is particularly significant because it reflects the disruption of operations at the Pančevo refinery. The refinery’s operational uncertainty, linked to sanctions risks surrounding its Russian ownership structure, has had direct consequences for Serbia’s export performance in the energy sector.
Trade dynamics also reflect the changing geography of Serbia’s external economic relationships. Countries of the European Union remain Serbia’s dominant trading partners, accounting for 63.8% of total foreign trade in 2025.
Germany remains Serbia’s largest trading partner overall, accounting for 13.3% of total trade exchange, although its share declined slightly from 14.1% in the previous year.
China occupies the second position, with its share of Serbia’s total trade increasing from 10% to 11.1%.
This shift reflects the growing importance of Chinese imports in Serbia’s trade structure. China’s share of Serbian exports declined slightly from 5.9% to 5.6%, while its share of imports increased from 13.1% to 15.4%.
Italy remains one of Serbia’s most important export destinations as well. Among Serbian exports to Italy, passenger cars accounted for €547 million, while footwear exports reached €123 million.
Turkey has also emerged as an increasingly important trade partner, ranking as the fifth-largest partner by total trade volume after Germany, China, Italy, and Hungary.
Another notable development is the expansion of Serbia’s monthly export capacity. By December 2025, the long-term trend value of monthly exports exceeded €2.8 billion for the first time in history.
This milestone reflects the gradual scaling up of Serbia’s industrial export capacity over the past decade, driven by foreign investment in manufacturing and integration into European supply chains.
However, the concentration of export growth in a limited number of industries also raises questions about the sustainability of the current export model. Automotive production, rubber and plastics manufacturing, and several intermediate goods industries account for a large share of export expansion.
If demand for these products weakens in European markets, Serbia’s export growth could slow rapidly.
Another structural challenge concerns the technological composition of exports. Much of Serbia’s manufacturing activity remains concentrated in sectors characterized by medium technological complexity, where production is often focused on assembly or component manufacturing rather than high-value research and development.
Although these sectors provide employment and export revenue, they also expose the economy to intense competition from other manufacturing hubs in Eastern Europe and Asia.
Nevertheless, Serbia’s export performance in 2025 demonstrates the resilience of its industrial sector even in an environment of global uncertainty and slowing European growth.
The continued expansion of manufacturing exports, combined with the transformation of the automotive sector and the strengthening of industrial supply chains, suggests that Serbia has established itself as an important production platform within the European industrial system.
The challenge for the coming decade will be to diversify this export base, deepen technological capabilities, and expand domestic value creation within these manufacturing industries.
