The value of Serbia’s exports and imports fell by several estimates in 2020 compared to the year before, according to data from the Republic Bureau of Statistics.
Exports are 3.7 percent lower than in 2019, while the value of imports was 4.8 percent lower than a year earlier, measured in dinars. Although there are categories in which exports were slightly lower than in the previous period, we exported certain products more than in the year when there was no pandemic.
Thus, the largest increase in the value of exports was recorded with tobacco and beverages of 14 percent, more food and live animals were exported by 10 percent, as well as chemical products and raw materials, except fuel. Slightly lower exports than in 2019 were mineral fuels, machines and transport devices, but also animal and vegetable fats, which we imported the most last year.
This category of products records the largest increase in the value of imports of 23.5 percent, followed by food and animals with a growth of 13.5 percent, as well as chemical and various finished products. The largest drop in imports, of almost 30 percent, was recorded in the category of mineral fuels and lubricants.
Viewed by sectors, the largest increase in the value of exports was made by professional, scientific and innovative activities of as much as 140 percent, followed by mining (26.3) and agriculture 16.5 percent. Arts, entertainment and recreation had the largest decline in exports of 35 percent, but at the same time this sector recorded a huge increase in the value of imports of as much as 113 percent.
Last year, compared to 2019, imports in agriculture increased by some three percent, by more than 26 percent in the category of professional and innovative activities, while the biggest drop, of 38 percent, was in mining, Danas reports.
