Both businesses and consumers see that the peak of Serbia's current economic recovery is behind us—from the position of the best „economic sentiment“ in the region it held during the pandemic until July 2021, Serbia is falling to the position of the lowest sentiment after the most affected North Macedonia, especially since January.
Serbia was one of the leading countries in post-pandemic recovery, but also a country where the decline in economic sentiment began even before the war in Ukraine.
Sector perceptions moved in opposite directions, so sales and services sectors managed to maintain a relatively high level, while the industry, construction, and consumer sectors experienced a sharper decline.. Even though consumer sentiment managed to remain at an enviable level throughout the entire corona period, it began to decline sharply from July 2021 and reached a level –6,8% which is its lowest value since September 2017. Sentiment in the industry and construction sectors began to decline sharply with the beginning of the invasion of Ukraine. This development in these two sectors can be linked to the sharp increase in prices of energy, construction, and raw materials, as well as problems in supply chains. Both sectors contribute negatively to economic sentiment and are at the level of -21% and -7% respectively. Three sectors with a negative sign indicate that more than half of the economy perceives the current situation as worse than usual. On the other hand, sentiment in the sales and services sectors manages to remain at a high level of 8.7 and 10.8% respectively, thus contributing positively to the composite index of Serbia's economic sentiment.
The index is currently at the level of 96.1%, which is its lowest value since the end of 2020.
The situation in other countries can be viewed in the graph below by selecting the country you are interested in, and for details, click here.
