IMF and CCIS: Import and Prices of Energy Sources, Export and Inflation Biggest Challenges for Serbian Economy

The delegation of the mission of the International Monetary Fund (IMF), which is visiting Serbia, led by Jan Kees Martijn, has talked to representatives of the Chamber of Commerce of Serbia (CCIS) about macroeconomic and financial stability, investment environment and the challenges which lie ahead of the Serbian economy due to the Ukrainian crisis and the global market disturbances.

As pointed out at the meeting, the problems that the EU economy is facing are also the ones that worry the Serbian economy the most, namely, the import and the growth of the prices of energy sources and other raw materials, exporting, supply chains and inflation, according to the website of the CCIS.

– Serbia shares the fate of the whole Europe and European companies and it is very important to precisely look into which industries are the most jeopardized, where the state can help overcome the crisis as easily as possible and what is cause for alarm – said Mihailo Vesovic, the director of the Sector for Strategic Analyses, Services and Internationalization of the CCIS, following the conversation with the IMF representatives.

At the meeting at the CCIS, there was talk about how the Serbian economy is handling the current crisis and which consequences and impacts on the so far accelerated economic development and GDP growth are expected.

The IMF mission is meeting with the CCIS representatives officially for the first time, which is a very important message, showing that they want to hear and honor the positions of the Serbian economy in this very important moment, Vesovic pointed out.

Milun Trivunac, adviser to the president of the CCIS, estimated that, from the exporting side, Serbia’s agricultural sector was the most affected, making up around a third of the overall Serbian exports to the Russian market. Also, the crisis regarding the purchase of chemical and oil industry products could have a big impact on the agricultural sector, especially on small and medium enterprises.

Međunarodni monetarni fond-MMF Beograd

Privredna komora Srbije

International Monetary Fund

IMF

Chamber of Commerce of Serbia

CCIS

Jan Kees Martijn

Mihailo Vesović

Milun Trivunac

macroeconomy

import of energy sources

prices of energy sources

exporting

supply chains

inflation

agriculture

agrarian sector

chemical industry

oil industry