BELGRADE (Serbia), April 8 (SeeNews) – Serbia's government aims to limit the decline of the country's gross domestic product (GDP) to 1.8% in 2020, president Aleksandar Vucic said.
"We will try to limit the GDP contraction to between 1.5% and 1.8%, which will be among the best results in Europe," Vucic said, as seen in a video file posted on the website of public broadcaster RTS on Tuesday.
The International Monetary Fund (IMF) will most likely project a 2.5% drop of Serbia's GDP and a sharp recovery in 2021, when the country's economic growth will be forecast at 7% at least, Vucic said. "The IMF expects that this year will be horrible due to everything that is happening now, but next year we will have the largest economic growth ever," he added.
Last week, Erste Group said it expects the Serbian economy to contract by 2.3% in 2020 due to the novel coronavirus disease (COVID-19) outbreak, before growing by a sharp 4.7% in 2021.
The country has confirmed 2,447 cases of the coronavirus infection and 61 deaths related to the virus so far.