Economic activity rises at beginning of 2014

BELGRADE - Economic activity rose at the beginning of this year and total industrial production grew by 3.8 percent in January compared to the same month last year, the editor of Belgrade-based Makroekonomske analize i trendovi (MAT) magazine Vladimir Vuckovic said on Tuesday.

The year-on-year growth rate in the processing industry was at 7.3 percent, turnover grew nominally by 2.9 percent, and the real retail trade turnover was over 0.6 percent, Vuckovic said presenting the latest issue of MAT.

The value of Serbia's exports in euros was 10.7 percent higher, while imports fell by 5.2 percent in the first month of the year, he said.

Vuckovic, who is a member of the Fiscal Council, said that "January is a very variable month" and that the data should be taken with great reservation as the month is not a reliable indicator of trends.

Imports amounted to EUR 993 million in January, with exports amounting to EUR 731 million, he said.

MAT experts expect a continued growth of exports, which is expanding to areas outside the automotive industry, but say that the growth will not match that of 2013, which was achieved thanks to automotive exports.

Earnings plummeted sharply in January, in terms of both average earnings and the wage bill. Average nominal earnings fell by 8.6 percent and the real wage bill fell by 10.6 in January.

Economist Bosko Zivkovic warned of adverse changes in the bad loans sector, adding that a number of negative processes in the real and banking sectors once again highlighted the issues of the quality of the banks' balance sheet assets and the level of bad loans.

Those are old or new loans in the real estate and construction sector that are hard to collect, he...