Although the gross domestic product, after several years of growth in the pandemic 2020, recorded a decline of 0.1 percent, thanks to fiscal and monetary policy measures, macroeconomic stability was preserved, industrial production grew by 0.4 percent and companies at the overall level achieved positive net result of 3.6 billion euros, which is as much as 20.7 percent more than in 2019.
This is the summary of the publication “Annual Bulletin of Financial Statements for 2020”, which was presented at the Business Registers Agency by Ruzica Stamenkovic, registrar of the Register of Financial Reports, based on aggregate data for 154,208 legal entities and 112,703 entrepreneurs.
The net profit of companies last year amounted to 6.03 billion euros and increased by 10.7 percent compared to the year before, while the net loss was 2.3 billion euros and was two percent lower than in 2019. At the same time, two thirds of businessmen it operated positively while only one third recorded a loss.
– Profitable business of the economy was fully realized through business activities, and the realized positive business result of 5.4 billion euros is higher by 10.5 percent. This result was achieved with the volume of business activities, which was only slightly increased, with operating revenues increased by 0.7 percent, and operating expenses by only 0.1 percent – the publication states and adds that and a financial loss of 290 million euros reduced by 14.3 compared to 2019, mainly due to lower interest expenses.
It is stated that the foreign trade exchange has slightly decreased, but that the number of employees has increased by 43,592 workers, which is accompanied by an increase in profitability. Most sectors, despite the increased uncertainty, are recording positive business, and the best result was recorded in trade – 1.14 billion euros, which is an increase of 81.4 with 4,502 employees more than last year.
The burden of the crisis was most heavily borne by the transport and storage sector and the accommodation and food services sector, in which a loss of 97 million euros and 77.8 million euros was reported.
When it comes to the financial sector, stability has been preserved and 25 banks have reported a total profit of 339 million euros, which is 37.4 percent less compared to the previous year. The banks employed 21,750 workers, which is about 1,000 less than in 2019.
Public companies were also more successful, 545 of them made a total net profit 250.8 million euros. The number of employees in these companies was reduced by 1,194, to the current 114,451 workers.
Economists agree that the fact that the state enabled the postponement of some obligations, from loans to taxes and contributions, as well as that it reduced the pressure on companies by paying minimum wages for employees, also contributed to the unexpectedly good results.
– There are not a small number of companies that worked better than before the pandemic. One of the lucky circumstances was a good year in agriculture, which was not affected by the pandemic. Also, all foreign companies mostly worked, and we should not ignore the fact that Serbia stands out for the generosity of three packages of state aid, we are at the top of Europe, there are few richer countries that have set so much. Of course, if that help had been lacking, unemployment would have been far higher. On the one hand, that is good, but it has its price – indebtedness and the firm-deficit, which was unexpectedly and significantly increased, more than twice with this rebalance. This showed that they “pumped” a lot of money, and by the end of the year they will add more in order to achieve higher GDP growth, preservation of employment and growth of production – Ljubodrag Savic, professor at the Faculty of Economics in Belgrade, told Danas.
He also points out that this year is unpredictable, it is not known how the epidemic will develop, so everything is still uncertain. Some of the companies will pay the price, there are many who are financially exhausted, their reserves are drying up from before and the possibility of adding from “their wallet” is getting smaller.
– That also applies to the state. This third package is not as generous as the previous one, and it is completely natural that the state has to put an end to it. It is possible that the fourth package will happen to us, or that we will not achieve the planned growth rate, which would mean that payments to the budget will be less and the deficit much higher than planned. So there are a lot of unknowns. This is a great result but everything is still in play. It is difficult to maintain that level this year as well, regardless of the fact that a high growth rate is planned – says Savic.
Ivan Nikolic from the Institute of Economics also says that 2019 was characterized by the fact that large public companies had a loss mainly due to large investments, which reduced the positive result for that year at the aggregate level, and the results were shown in the past.
– We should definitely take a closer look at the structure of what happened. It is good that in the crisis year, at least with the measures of the Government, we significantly facilitated the business of the company and that they recorded such good financial results. But, this is only the first preliminary report, now we have a more detailed analysis to see what caused such a result – says Nikolić.
Successful sectors
The sector of the processing industry showed resilience in the crisis period with a realized profit of 1.1 billion euros (growth of 12.6 percent) and the number of workers of 391,855 by 17,015 is higher than last year.
The construction industry also showed a high positive result with 495 milion euros, which is 72.6 percent more than last year, and at the same time the number of employees increased by 3,543 and the total number of workers is 81,546. Significant growth in profitability is present in the sector of information and communication, electricity supply, agriculture, etc, Danas reports.
