Good Policies & Economic Cooperation GO HAND-IN-HAND

Intensified political cooperation and the strengthening of mutual trust also has a favourable impact on the volume of economic cooperation, with Serbia ranking among the top countries in terms of the volume of Slovenian investments, while in recent times there has also been an increase in the flow of Serbian investments heading to Slovenia

The trade exchange between Serbia and Slovenia totalled 1.7 billion euros in 2022, which was up 292 million euros, or 20.7%, on 2021. Exports of Serbian products to Slovenia last year were worth 738.9 million euros, representing 54.1 million euros (or 7.9%) less than was achieved in 2021. The value of imports reached 957.1 million euros in 2022, which marks an increase of 237.8 million euros (or 33%) compared to 2021. The increase in goods imports from Slovenia in 2022 exceeded the increase in Serbia’s exports to this market, and thus the trade deficit with Slovenia stood at 218.2 million euros, after having totalled just 34.5 million euros in 2021.

Exports to Slovenia in the first quarter of the current year were slightly lower than the total recorded in Q1 2022 (down 2.6 million euros), while imports from Slovenia were up by approximately 3.6 million euros, thus the mutual trade exchange in the observed period of this year is almost the same as in 2022. These statistics were presented by Mihailo

Vesović, Director of the Chamber of Commerce and Industry of Serbia’s Division for Strategic Analyses, Services and Internationalisation, in this CorD Magazine interview.

■ How much has cooperation between the two countries proved resilient against the global economic crisis of the last few years?

- There has been a noticeable upward trend in the trade exchange between Serbia and Slovenia over the last five years, with just a slight decrease in that exchange recorded in 2019. Expressed in percentages, this exchange has grown annually by between five per cent and as much as 20 per cent. The foreign trade balance was positive for Serbia during 2018 and 2019, while Serbia has had a trade deficit with Slovenia since 2017. The Covid-19 pandemic showed that all companies that were able to reorient their operations to the markets closest to them geographically