A stable exchange rate in Serbia
For those planning to start a business in Serbia, one of the guarantees for a sustainable and long-term business is a stable exchange rate in Serbia. After two decades of unstable exchange rates and changing monetary policies, Serbia has ensured macroeconomic stability, which is reflected, among other things, in the stable exchange rate of the dinar against the euro. For 1 euro, one can get grom 117,0 dinars.
A stable national currency or a constant parity ratio between the dinar and the euro is particularly important when goods or raw materials are imported from Serbia or when they are imported into Serbia for later sale.
Below is a graph showing how the dinar-euro exchange rate moved (source: Nacionalna banka Srbije – National Bank of Serbia). The blue line shows the development of interannual inflation, which also affects the euro-dinar exchange rate.
Currency and gold reserves in Serbia
The currency and gold reserves are at an all-time high and show a steadily growing trend. Even in the years not shown in the chart – i.e. the last two years, there was also a strong upward trend. Currently, foreign exchange reserves exceed 21 billion euros, which represents an almost exponential growth compared to the last years from the graph. The reserves of the National Bank of Serbia are marked in red, while the mandatory reserves of commercial banks are marked in orange. Gold reserves are also at an all-time high, amounting to nearly 40 tons, according to the most recent data. Serbia has the right of first entity to buy gold mined on its territory, and gold reserves have grown almost exponentially over the last five years, from 10 tons to the current 40 tons.
Serbian public debt
Public debt is stable and in line with GDP growth. Serbia adheres to signed agreements on the maximum level of public debt, which does not exceed 60 percent of GDP. Standard and Poor’s has confirmed Serbia’s BB+ credit rating several times, although there have long been expectations that Serbia would be classified as an investment country. However, this did not happen this time either. At this point we would like to mention that in 2011 this rating was two notches lower and was BB-. The last point in this analysis is the share of non-performing loans, which reached a historical minimum of only 3% in 2023 – compared to 22% in 2015.