February 19 (SeeNews) - The Serbian central bank, NBS, said on Wednesday has raised its estimate for the country's economic growth in 2019 to 4.2%, from 3.6% predicted in November.
"According to our latest estimate, economic growth came in at 4.2% in 2019, exceeding all the projections released in the course of the year," central bank governor Jorgovanka Tabakovic said in remarks to the presentation of NBS' February 2020 inflation report published on the bank's website.
"Serbia outperformed all the projections owing to the impact of domestic factors, notably higher than projected investment. In the past two years alone, fixed investment increased cumulatively by close to 35%, accounting for three quarters of Serbia’s economic growth," Tabakovic said.
She added that in the fourth quarter of last year alone, the annual growth of Serbia's gross domestic product (GDP) quickened to 6.1% from 4.8% in the preceding quarter.
Last year's anticipated growth is still somewhat below the 4.4% economic expansion recorded in 2018.
In the February inflation report, NBS also affirmed its previous forecast for 4.0% GDP growth in each of 2020 and 2021, supported by strong investment, exports and a sustainable rise in household consumption.
In January, the World Bank cut slightly its forecast for Serbia's 2020 economic growth to 3.9% from 4.0% projected in June, adding the GDP growth will then accelerate to 4.0% in 2021.