MAT: Growth of Imports in First Three Months in Serbia Twice as High as Growth of Exports

In Serbia, the growth of the value of imports in the first three months of 2022 was more than twice as high as the growth of exports, and the main imported products are oil, gas, coke coal, chemical products and electricity, as said in the latest issue of the monthly publication Makroekonomske analize i trendovi (MAT).

In March 2022, the import of electrical energy, as said, reached the value of 186% above the previous year’s average.

– Since the beginning of 2022, the expansion of the external trade has been increasing, the exports in the first three months increased 28.6% y-o-y, whereas the imports increased 48.5%, which reduced the export-import coverage ratio from an average of 76% in 2021 to 73% in January, but also to only 65% in February – say the MAT experts.

In March the export-import coverage ratio improved to 71%, which is still much less than last year and less than in January 2022, when it was 73%.

The increase of the value of the exports is located, primarily, in the increase of the value of the exports of metal ores (EUR 353 million), the production of basic metals (235), food industry (137), chemical industry (136), rubber and plastic industry (90), coke coal and petroleum products (77), electrical equipment (73) and other machines and equipment (EUR 62 million).

As the MAT experts say, the value of the exports of agricultural products dropped more than EUR 90 million.

The value of the total exports in the first three months of 2022 was higher than in the same period in 2021 by EUR 1.378 billion, however, the increase of the value of the exports at the same time amounted to EUR 2.915 billion, so the deficit increased by more than EUR 1.5 billion.

Ekonomski Institut a.d. Beograd

Makroekonomske analize i trendovi

MAT

import

export

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first three months of 2022

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