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 - November 2016, Belgrade, 21 November 2016.

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

Ladies and gentlemen, dear colleagues,

Welcome to the presentation of the November Inflation Report. As good habits should not be broken, we will give you today, like on previous occasions, an overview of recent monetary and macroeconomic developments and set out our expectations for the period ahead. After that, we shall have a question and answer session. 

Let me remind you of what we said at the last presentation of the Inflation Report: a steady stream of upward revisions of economic projections does not come so often. But, in the case of Serbia, since the beginning of 2015 there has been a constant improvement in macroeconomic indicators and prospects. As the improvements persisted, we raised our GDP growth projection for 2016 once again and lowered our projections of the budget and current account deficits. The IMF and the European Commission did the same, acknowledging the results achieved in the year so far, and revised their expectations for Serbia upward. In addition, Serbia's public debt will record a decline this year, which is a year earlier than anticipated before. I think this is the best news for Serbia.