In 2022, Serbia had a new record year with inflows of foreign direct investments, between 4.3 and 4.4 billion euros, announced the National Bank of Serbia (NBS) based on operational data for December.
Presenting the results of this year’s work, the Central Bank emphasized that Serbia’s status as a desirable investment destination has been preserved. As in previous years, more than half of the inflow is directed to exchangeable sectors, and mostly to the processing industry, which is the key export sector of the Serbian economy.
NBS expects that the export of the manufacturing industry in 2022 will exceed the level of 23 billion euros, which is about four billion euros more than the export of the manufacturing industry in 2021.
Also, the positive perception of Serbia as an investment destination is indicated by Serbia’s preserved credit rating, which is close to investment grade, despite the global upheavals.
In the press release of the NBS in which the cross-section of the year is made, it is also stated that the dinar has strengthened against the euro this year by 0.2 percent, the gross foreign exchange reserves of the country are a record and exceed 18 billion euros, and the gold in the foreign exchange reserves has increased by 1 ,1 ton, to a record 38.5 tons.
It is estimated that the proactive actions of the central bank mitigated the effects of the multidimensional global crisis in a year that will be remembered as a year of great challenges and intertwined crises.
The NBS points out that with the strengthening of the dinar against the euro by 0.2 percent, the National Bank is in the surplus by more than 700 million euros based on interventions on the foreign exchange market, because it bought foreign currency for so much more than it sold it.