March 16 (SeeNews) - Serbia's gross domestic product (GDP) increased 4.2% year-on-year in January on the back of the positive economic trends since the beginning of the year, prime minister Ana Brnabic said.
The government expects the country's economic growth to quicken to 3.5% in 2018, compared to 1.9% last year, Brnabic said in a statement on Thursday.
Serbia's central government debt, currently equivalent to 57% of the projected 2018 GDP, is expected to decline to 45% of GDP in the future, Brnabic added.
Earlier this month, Brnabic said the government targets economic growth of 3.9% in the first quarter of 2018. Serbia's budget showed a surplus of 18 billion dinars ($187.6 million/152.2 million euro) in January.
The exports of Serbia's IT sector amounted to 900 million euro last year, exceed the export revenue from traditional sectors such as agriculture and wood processing, she added.
Serbia's central government debt decreased to 22.9 billion euro at the end of January from 23.22 billion euro at the end of 2017, according to finance ministry data. The debt was equivalent to 57.2% of the projected 2018 gross domestic product (GDP), down from 61.5% at the end of 2017.
(1 euro = 118.261 dinars)