In the first eight months of this year, Serbia recorded a 0.4 percent drop in foreign trade in goods compared to the same period last year, and economist Saša Đogović believes that this is a consequence of the “stumbling” of, first of all, the German and Italian economies, but also the Chinese , that is, the countries that are the three leading export markets for Serbia.
Industrial production in Serbia in August 2023 is higher by 5.8 percent compared to August 2022, and compared to the average of 2022, it is higher by 0.6 percent, according to the data of the Republic Statistical Office (RZS).
Industrial production in the period from January to August of this year compared to the same period of the previous year was higher by 2.4 percent.
Observed by sectors, if you compare August of this year and the previous year, a growth of 17 percent was recorded in the mining sector, a growth of 2.4 percent in the manufacturing industry sector, and a growth of 16 percent in the electricity, gas, steam and air conditioning supply sector 6 percent.
According to these data, the exploitation of metal ores experienced a growth of 36.7 percent when comparing August of this year and the previous year.
In addition, the production of chemicals and chemical products jumped by 44.6 percent, also, the production of basic pharmaceutical products and preparations experienced a growth of 32 percent.
On the other hand, the production of beverages experienced a decline of 14.6 percent, and the activity of printing and duplicating audio and video records decreased by 17.6 percent.
Despite the increase in industrial production in our country, the total foreign trade commodity exchange experienced a drop of 0.4 percent when comparing data from the first eight months of this year compared to the same period last year.
Economist Saša Đogović emphasizes that the reason is that industrial production records slower growth rates.
“After the first three months of this year, the growth rate of the industry was 2.5 percent, and after the first six months, it decreased to 1.7 percent.” It is now at 2.4 percent after eight months, but that is only because there was an increase in industrial production in August, on a monthly basis. In July, there was a decrease in stocks of oil derivatives, so in August, based on that, stocks were replenished and industrial production is therefore at a positive level, but again it is below the level of the first three months of this year,” our interlocutor points out.
According to the data of RZS, Serbia’s foreign trade in goods in the first eight months amounted to over 43.29 billion euros. Goods were exported in the value of slightly more than 19 billion euros, which represents a growth of 7.1 percent compared to the same period of the previous year.
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