IMF Keeps Projection of Serbia’s GDP Growth at 5% for This Year

The International Monetary Fund (IMF) has kept the projection of the growth of the gross domestic product (GDP) of Serbia at 5% for this year and 4.5% for 2022, the same as the January projection.

In the April edition of “The World Economic Outlook 2021”, presented on April 6, ahead of the spring session of the IMF and the World Bank, they project that the average growth rate of Serbia by 2026 will be 4%.

With a growth rate of 5% this year, as projected by the IMF, the Serbian economy is to fully recover to the pre-pandemic levels, since it only dropped by 1% last year, which is one of the best economic results in the region and Europe in the year marked by the fight against the COVID pandemic.

According to the Fund’s prognosis, the average annual inflation rate in Serbia will be 2.2% in 2021 and 2.4% in 2022, which is within the target band of the National Bank of Serbia of 3% plus/minus 1.5 percentage points.

The IMF projects that the deficit of the current payments of Serbia in 2021 will amount to 5.7%, after which it is to drop to 5.5% in 2022.

When it comes to the economies in the region, the GDP of Croatia in the current year, according to the IMF, should grow by 4.7%, whereas the projection for Bosnia and Herzegovina is a growth of 3.5% and for North Macedonia 3.8%.

After last year’s drop of 15.2%, the Fund estimates that Montenegro would recover at the rate of 9% in 2021, whereas the lowest growth rate, of 0.8%, is projected for Slovenia.

According to the projection of the IMF, the economy of Kosovo, which recorded a drop of 6% last year, will partially compensate for it this year with a growth of 4.5%.

The IMF also projects that, in 2021, Bulgaria will record a growth of 4.4%, Hungary of 4.3%, Albania of 5% and Romania and Turkey of 6% each.

Međunarodni monetarni fond - MMF Beograd

IMF

projection of growth of GDP of Serbia for 2021

World Economic Outlook 2021

projection of growth rate for 2022