The economy of Serbia is a developing market economy. Serbia has a significant manufacturing base, focused mainly on electrical machinery, automobiles, base metals, and rubber products. The Serbian economy's core exports include electrical equipment, motor vehicles, copper and base metals, tires, and pharmaceuticals. Highly dependent on international trade in Europe, key trading partners include the EU, its neighbors, as well as China and Turkey. The capital city and financial centre is Belgrade, with Novi Sad and Bor being important economic hubs.
Historical preview
In the decades leading up to World War I, GDP growth in Serbia grew by 0.28% per annum. This was a slower growth rate than Northwestern Europe, leading to a widening economic divergence between Serbia and Western Europe. Prior to WWI, there was extensive growth in Serbia's dominant agricultural sector. Industrial and service sectors remained small.
In the late 1980s, at the beginning of the process of economic transition from a planned economy to a market economy, Serbia's economy had a favorable position in comparison to most of the Eastern Bloc countries, but it was gravely impacted by poor economic decision-making in the 1990s, the Yugoslav Wars, and UN sanctions and trade embargo during the 1990s. The country experienced one of the most extreme hyperinflation episodes in modern history, peaking at a monthly rate of around 313 million percent in January 1994. At the same time, the country experienced a serious "brain drain". There was a severe recession which continued until 1999.
After the overthrow of Slobodan Milošević in 2000, Serbia went through a process of transition to a market-based economy and experienced sustained economic growth. During that period, the Serbian economy grew 4–5% annually, average wages quadrupled, and economic and social opportunities dramatically improved. During the Great Recession, Serbia marked a decline in its economy of 3.1% in 2009, and following years of economic stagnation pre-crisis level of GDP was reached only in 2016.
Since 2014, the country has been in the process of accession negotiations to join the European Union. An IMF Stand-By Arrangement running from 2015 to 2017 supported fiscal consolidation, with general government debt falling from about 70% of GDP in 2015 to approximately 52% by 2019. Real GDP growth averaged 3–4% annually from 2017 to 2019. The COVID-19 recession produced a milder contraction in Serbia than in most European economies, with output declining 0.9% in 2020 and rebounding 7.5% in 2021. The 2021–2023 inflation surge, driven by global energy and food price shocks following the Russian invasion of Ukraine, pushed annual inflation to a peak of around 16% in early 2023, prompting the National Bank of Serbia to tighten monetary policy. Growth recovered to 2.5% in 2023 and an estimated 3.9% in 2024.
Foreign direct investment reached record levels, averaging more than €4 billion per year between 2021 and 2024, with major investments by Stellantis (automotive, Kragujevac), Zijin Mining (copper, Bor) and Linglong (tires, Zrenjanin). In July 2024, a free-trade agreement with China entered into force, making Serbia one of the few European countries with comprehensive free-trade arrangements covering both the EU and China. As of 2024, the World Bank classified Serbia as an upper middle income economy, and the European Commission assessed it as "a functioning market economy".
Macroeconomic trends Economic growth The Serbian economy is expected to grow to $116 billion in 2029, slightly outpacing the rest of the former Yugoslav Republics according to the IMF. Its economy has been the largest former Yugoslav by purchasing power parity (PPP) since 2008 and the second-largest by nominal GDP since 1998. Serbia's debt-to-GDP ratio as of 2025 at 38.1%, which is lower than the 60% level defined by the Maastricht criteria as the upper limit of an acceptable level. Its sovereign debt level is projected to be the second-lowest among the former Yugoslav Republics by 2029, with an expected increase from the current 38.1% to 40.7% of GDP. The average growth of Serbia's GDP from 2020 to 2025 was 4% per year.
The Serbian economy by sector consists of services at 57.58%, industry at 23.97%, and agriculture at 3.79%. Its GDP composition by end-use is composed of the following:
household consumption: 62.6% (2023 est.) government consumption: 17.1% (2023 est.) investment in fixed capital: 23.4% (2023 est.) investment in inventories: 1.2% (2023 est.) exports of goods and services: 55.1% (2023 est.) imports of goods and services: -59.4% (2023 est.)
GDP Growth Year 2000 2001 2002 2003 2004 2005 2006 2007 200820092010201120122013201420152016201720182019202020212022202320242025 Rate6.1%6.8%6.5%4.3%6.7%5.9%3.9%7.8%5.2%-3.1%1.6%0.1%-0.4%0.5%-1.8%1.3%3%2.4%4.6%4.8%-1%7.9%2.7%3.7%3.9%2%Source: International Monetary Fund
Public finances Serbia's public debt relative to GDP from 2000 to 2008 decreased by 140.1 percentage points, and then started increasing again as the government was fighting effects of worldwide 2008 financial crisis. In 2025, the public debt stood at 44.4% of GDP.
Public debt Year 2000 2001 2002 2003 2004 2005 2006 2007 2008 2009 2010 2011 2012 2013 2014 2015 2016 2017 2018 2019 2020 202120222023202420252026 (30.06) Billions EUR 14.17 13.43 11.53 11.02 9.68 10.28 9.35 8.87 8.78 9.85 12.16 14.79 17.18 20.14 22.76 24.82 24.82 23.22 23.01 23.94 26.67 30.1333.3336.1538.8739.3441.29 Share of GDP 179.6% 88.1% 61.4% 55.4% 48.7% 46.5% 33.0% 26.8% 25.8% 29.8% 37.9% 41.2% 50.8% 53.7% 63.4% 67.2% 65.2% 55.5% 51.4% 49.7% 54.4% 53.9% 52.4%48%46.7%44.4%43.8% Source: Ministry of Finance of Serbia Public debt Administration
Serbian foreign exchange reserves were highly augmented from 2000 to 2009, when they amounted 10.6 billion euros and have stayed at that level ever since.
Foreign exchange reserves Year 2000 2002 2003 2004 2005 2006 2007 2008 2009 2010 2011 2012 2013 2014 2015 2016 201720182019202020212022202320242025 Central bank (bln. EUR) 0.55 2.19 2.83 3.10 4.92 9.02 9.63 8.16 10.60 10.00 12.06 10.91 11.19 9.91 10.38 10.20 9.9611.2613.3813.4916.4619.4224.9129.2929.01 Comm. banks (bln. EUR) 0.39 0.68 0.67 0.59 0.55 0.52 1.22 0.92 1.43 1.68 0.81 1.06 0.91 1.73 1.43 1.56 1.111.631.512.062.892.672.953.182.89 Total (bln. EUR) 0.95 2.86 3.50 3.69 5.47 9.54 10.85 9.08 12.03 11.69 12.87 11.97 12.10 11.64 11.81 11.76 11.0712.8914.8915.5519.3522.0927.8632.4731.90 Source: National Bank of Serbia
Currency and inflation
The official currency in Serbia is the Serbian dinar and its earliest use dates back to 1214.
Serbia historically has battled high inflation, especially during the 1980s and 1990s. In 1992 and 1993, it experienced a period of hyperinflation which lasted for a total of 25 months. In 1993, the monthly inflation rate stood at a staggering 313 million percent. Since the early 2000s, the inflation rate has stabilized and in the last couple of years a relatively low level of inflation was recorded.
Inflation and Serbian dinar Exchange Rates Year 2002 2004 2006 2008 2009 2010 2011 2012 2013 2014 2015 2016 2017 2018 2019 2020 2021 2022202320242025 Inflation rate 19.5% 11.0% 11.7% 12.4% 8.1% 6.1% 11.1% 7.3% 7.7% 2.1% 1.4% 1.1% 3% 2% 1.9% 1.1% 4.2% 15.0%7.6%4.3%2.7% USD/RSD 58.98 57.94 59.98 62.90 66.73 79.28 80.87 86.18 83.13 99.46 111.25 117.13 99.11 103.39 104.92 101.92 103.61 110.48106.18112.78100.22 EUR/RSD 61.51 78.89 79.00 88.60 95.89 105.50 104.64 113.72 114.64 120.96 121.63 123.47 118.45 118.19 117.59 117.45 117.22 117.67117.53117.37117.63 Source: World Bank, National Bank of Serbia; Note: All exchange data retrieved each year on December 31
Economic sectors In 2022, the sector with the highest number of companies registered in Serbia is Services with 125,511 companies followed by Wholesale Trade and Manufacturing with 28,699 and 21,865 companies respectively.
Agriculture
Serbia has very favourable natural conditions (land and climate) for varied agricultural production. It has 5,056,000 ha of agricultural land (0.7 ha per capita), out of which 3,294,000 ha is arable land (0.45 ha per capita). In 2024, Serbia exported agricultural and food products worth $5.3 billion. Agricultural exports constitute more than one-fifth of all Serbia's sales on the world market. Serbia is one of the largest provider of frozen fruit to the EU (largest to the French market, and second largest to the German market). Agricultural production is most prominent in Vojvodina on the fertile Pannonian Plain. Other agricultural regions include Mačva, Pomoravlje, Tamnava, Rasina, and Jablanica.
In the structure of the agricultural production 70% is from the crop field production, and 30% is from the livestock production. Serbia is world's second largest producer of plums (582,485 tons; second to China) and the third largest of raspberries (127,010 tons, trailing only Russia and the United States). It is also significant producer of maize (6.48 million tons, ranked 32nd in the world) and wheat (2.07 million tons, ranked 35th in the world). Other important agricultural products are: sunflower, sugar beet, soybean, potato, apple, mutton, pork meat, beef, poultry and dairy.
There are 56,000 ha of vineyards in Serbia, producing about 230 million litres of wine annually. Most famous viticulture regions are located in Vojvodina and Šumadija.
Energy
The energy sector is one of the largest and most important sectors to the country's economy. Serbia is a net exporter of electricity and importer of key fuels (such as oil and gas).
Serbia has an abundance of coal, and significant reserves of oil and gas. Despite being small on a world scale, Serbia's oil and gas resources (77.4 million tons of oil equivalent and 48.1 billion cubic meters, respectively) have a certain regional importance since they are largest in the region of former Yugoslavia as well as the Balkans (excluding Romania). Almost 90% of the discovered oil and gas are to be found in Banat and those oil and gas fields are by size among the largest in the Pannonian basin but are average on a European scale.
The production of electricity in 2018 in Serbia was 38.3 billion kilowatt-hours (KWh), while the final electricity consumption amounted to 28.1 billion kilowatt-hours (KWh). Most of the electricity produced comes from thermal-power plants (71% of all electricity) and to a lesser degree from hydroelectric-power plants (24%) and wind energy (3%). There are 6 lignite-operated thermal-power plants with an installed power of 3,936 MW; largest of which are 1,502 MW-Nikola Tesla 1 and 1,160 MW-Nikola Tesla 2, both in Obrenovac. Total installed power of 9 hydroelectric-power plants is 2,831 MW, largest of which is Đerdap 1 with capacity of 1,026 MW. In addition to this, there are mazute and gas-operated thermal-power plants with an installed power of 353 MW. The entire production of electricity is concentrated in Elektroprivreda Srbije (EPS), public electric-utility power company.
The current oil production in Serbia amounts to over 1.1 million tons of oil equivalent and satisfies some 43% of country's needs while the rest is imported. National petrol company, Naftna Industrija Srbije (NIS), was acquired in 2008 by Gazprom Neft. The company's refinery in Pančevo (capacity of 4.8 million tons) is one of the most modern oil-refineries in Europe; it also operates network of 334 filling stations in Serbia (74% of domestic market) and additional 36 stations in Bosnia and Herzegovina, 31 in Bulgaria, and 28 in Romania. There are 155 kilometers of crude oil pipelines connecting Pančevo and Novi Sad refineries as a part of trans-national Adria oil pipeline.