BELGRADE (Serbia), August 26 (SeeNews) – The inflow of foreign direct investment (FDI) into Serbia rose 31% on the year to 1.9 billion euro ($2.1 billion) in the first half of 2019, finance minister Sinisa Mali has said.
“We are advancing at double-digit rates. The Financial Times confirmed that we are record-holders in terms of FDI inflow, this trend is continuing and there is no reason why this year we will not be champions too,” Mali said in a video file posted on the YouTube channel of private TV broadcaster Pink last week.
Earlier this month, the Financial Times reported that Serbia has taken over as a leader in the global greenfield foreign direct investment (FDI) index compiled by fDi Intelligence, a data division of the London-based newspaper, followed by Montenegro at the second place.
The country attracted 107 FDI projects in 2018, 26 more than in 2017, growing by almost one-third, the Financial Times said.
In 2018 net inflow of FDI into Serbia rose to 3.2 billion euro from 2.415 billion euro in the previous year, according to central bank data. Net FDI in the manufacturing industry accounted for 28% of the total and 61% of it came from EU member states.
($ = 0.8918 euro)