Business and Finance: Private Sector Debt Increasing

Serbia's Debt Lowered to 65.7 Percent of GDP at End of June

At the end of 2023, Serbia’s external debt reached EUR45.4 billion, with public debt accounting for more than half of the amount, or EUR24.7 billion, business magazine Biznis i Finansije has reported.

The remaining EUR20.7 billion are private lending, with corporate medium-term and long-term borrowing accounting for EUR16.4 billion, the banks’ share is EUR3.3 billion, while the amount of short-term loans is EUR0.9 billion.

The state has also precisely determined its debt, standing at EUR10.99 billion.

However, figures about domestic private debt are harder to obtain because there are no official records.

The closest picture is provided by the Association of Serbian Banks (ASB() which keeps record of corporate and personal borrowing, which, according to the latest date as of April 30, 2024, totaled EUR30.8 billion, according to the magazine.

Of the total, corporate debt amounts to some EUR17.1 billion and personal debt to EUR13.1 billion, with borrowing of entrepreneurs standing at EUR626 million.

External and domestic corporate debt totaled EUR51.5 billion.

A year ago, Serbia’s external debt stood at EUR41.9 billion, of which public debt amounted to EUR22.2 billion, corporate private borrowing to EUR19.7 billion (around EUR15.5 billion), and banks to nearly EUR3.8 billion.

The borrowing in the domestic market stood at EUR28.5 billion.