Market potential

 

Belgrade offers huge market potential to all those who invest here. This includes, first and foremost, the possibility of duty-free exports for a large number of products to the markets of the European Union, Russia and South-East Europe as well as the USA.

On the other hand, thanks to the vigorous growth of living standards, the Serbian market is also becoming increasingly attractive to foreign and domestic investors.

EXPORT MARKETS

Investors in Belgrade and Serbia have access to almost one billion consumers, with exemption from customs and other levies.

European Union
Under the Stabilisation and Association Agreement with the European Union, Serbia is completely exempted from the payment of customs duties on the export of all industrial and agricultural products into the member countries of the Union. A certain number of agricultural and other products are subject to quantity quotas on an annual basis.

United States of America
Exports to the USA are governed by the Generalised System of Preferences (GSP) which provides for duty-free distribution of about 4,650 products, which include the majority of manufactured finished goods and intermediate goods, as well as a number of agricultural products. Exceptions to this category are primarily textiles and leather goods.

Russia
The Free Trade Agreement with Russia allows for the sale of products with more than 50% value added in Serbia, without payment of customs duties. This Agreement covers almost all types of goods, with the exception of motor vehicles, household appliances, wooden furniture, flooring materials, soap, alcoholic beverages, confectionery, sugar and chicken meat.

South-East Europe
The Free Trade Zone of South-East Europe, which is based on the CEFTA Agreement, is comprised of Albania, Bosnia and Herzegovina, Montenegro, Croatia, Macedonia, Moldavia and Serbia. The agreement provides amongst other things for the so-called diagonal accumulation of the origin of goods, which means that goods with at least 51% of content manufactured in CEFTA states, the European Union, Switzerland, Norway, Turkey and Iceland, bear the designation Made in CEFTA.

THE DOMESTIC MARKET

Average earnings in Serbia have increased almost fourfold since 2001. In August 2007 monthly net earnings across the country amounted to 28,143 dinars on average, putting Serbia in second place in the countries of the South-East European region.

At the same time, purchasing power, measured by the ratio of monthly average income to the Household Expenditure Index, has grown from 0.52 at the end of 2001 to 1.01 in the middle of 2007.

The vigorous expansion of domestic demand is confirmed by retail trends. In the last three years alone retail trade has grown at an exceptionally high rate of 18.0%, 26.6% and 7.7% per year.

The breakdown of income over different types of expenditure increasingly resembles the pattern of expenditure in developed economies. At present about 38% of the household budget is spent on food, but expenditure on clothes, footwear, furniture, recreation, culture and other needs is increasing its share.