The World Bank: Serbia’s economic growth is insufficient to catch up with developed countries

The World Bank estimates that this year’s economic growth in Serbia will be 3.5 percent, and same level is expected in following years as well, which is not enough in order to catch up with per capita income of the new member-states of the European Union (EU), economist of the World Bank (WB) Lazar Sestovic has stated today.

„The expected growth of 3.5 percent in this year is not bad, but Serbia should be much more ambitious in order to catch up with new member-states of the EU, which have a growth from four to five percent. If we want to reach those countries’ per capita income level, one most see how to continue with growth that his faster than projected,“ he has said at presentation of World Bank’s regular economic report for the Western Balkans.

Speaking about the situation at the beginning of this year, Sestovic has said that, according to initial data, a slowdown in Serbia’s economic growth has occurred, „as industrial production did not provide satisfying results“.

„We have a relatively poor January and a slight recovery in February, thus situation is not very good. The decline in the first two months was 1.6 percent,“ economist of the World Bank has said, adding that there is a big mystery what will happen to agriculture, since initial reports show that weather conditions do not favour crops.

Izvor: Beta

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