May 20 (SeeNews) - Foreign direct investment (FDI) into Serbia accounted for 8.2% of gross domestic product (GDP) in 2018 and fully covered last year's current account deficit, central bank governor Jorgovanka Tabakovic has said.
"More than half of investments in Serbia are channeled to tradable sectors, with one-third of the total going to the manufacturing industry through many small projects to export-oriented sectors," Tabakovic said on Friday during an address to a ministerial meeting in Brussels, according to a statement posted on the website of Serbia's central bank.
Net FDI into Serbia rose to 7.5% of GDP in 2018, covering 143% of the current account deficit, according to central bank data. By comparison, net FDI accounted for 6.2% of GDP in 2017, covering 118% of the current account deficit.
FDI is expected to be one of the supportive factors for the country's economy to grow at rates of at least 4% in the medium term, Tabakovic said at an annual meeting held in Brussels in the framework of the European Union's economic and financial dialogue with Western Balkans and Turkey.
"Another benefit is that they are facilitating the access to global value chains. An additional benefit of foreign direct investments is export diversification," she added.
Serbia's current account deficit rose to 2.223 billion euro ($2.482 billion) last year, from 2.051 billion euro in 2017, the central bank said in February.
($ = 0.895703 euro)