Economist: Pandemic Causes GDP To Contract by 3.2 Percent in Serbia in 2020

Vladimir Gligorov (BETAPHOTO/MILAN OBRADOVIC)

Serbia’s GDP in 2020 during the Covid-19 pandemic shed 3.2%, Vladimir Gligorov an associate of the Vienna Institute for International Economic Studies, has said.

In an interview with BETA he said that preliminary statistics for the period that began with the outbreak of the pandemic in mid-March after the first quarter indicated this.

“The lower drop in Serbia’s GDP compared with the GDPs of European countries is a result of an underdeveloped economy and a substantial increase of industrial production in which consumer goods made up a smaller share,” Gligorov said.

Investment in 2020, he said, minus public investment, went down significantly and this is likely to change at the start of 2021. How GDP will change later depends on the success of attempts to curb the pandemic.