Jorgovanka Tabaković: Overview of recent monetary and macroeconomic trends in Serbia

Introductory speech by Dr Jorgovanka Tabaković, Governor of the National Bank of Serbia, at the presentation of the Inflation Report, Belgrade, 17 November 2021.

The views expressed in this speech are those of the speaker and not the view of the BIS.

Welcome to the presentation of the November Inflation Report.

This is a crisis time when it comes to inflation – inflation has become a major topic. We are indeed in a kind of a storm, but it's not a hurricane, and we've been through worse. Our ship has no holes in it, and this captain with her crew has shown that she can steer this ship – the National Bank of Serbia, together with the Serbian state, which knows what it is doing and was prepared for the crisis much better than before.

Since our last presentation in August, the world economy was riddled by new challenges, mostly reflected in the escalating global energy crisis and prolonged disruptions in global value chains. In this sense, we can say that macroeconomic developments are under a significant impact of trends in the international environment, which are not diminishing in intensity even in the current stage of the pandemic. While in the initial stage of the pandemic – the economic lockdown stage, we were faced with the challenge of how to preserve production capacities and jobs, in the opening stage we need to resolve the challenge of a sudden spike in demand, limited supply of goods and services, and the ensuing rise in cost-push pressures across the globe.