USA 2022
INTERVIEW
STEFAN LAZAREVIĆ, AmCham Serbia President
Partnership Over The Long Term The American Chamber of Commerce in Serbia, AmCham, has represented an important pillar of American-Serbian partnership for 20 years already. Its goal is to work, through partnership with the Government of Serbia, to advance the business climate, promote the best business practices and values of America and Europe, and help its member companies period of weak growth and increased inflation. The European Commission, on its side, revised its 2022 economic growth forecast for the eurozone by 1.3 percentage points, down to 2.7%, while increasing its inflation forecast by 3.5 percentage points to 6.1%. The most significant negative factor is the rising price of energy, which has seen inflation soar to record levels at the European level, overburdening European companies and households. All of these factors are important to economic movements in our country. The research we conducted during 2021 showed optimism among member companies when it comes to their growth plans. Following the start of the war in Ukraine, we carried out a survey among member companies and the answers showed that they are less optimistic compared to last year, primarily due to the continued presence of the pandemic, the war in Ukraine, inflation and energy prices.
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mCham will continue to work over the next decade to promote the values of American business and strive to hold a seat at every table at which advancing the economic environment is discussed,” says AmCham President Stefan Lazarević at the start of our interview, during which we summarized AmCham’s 20 years of activity in Serbia and its members’ expectations for the year ahead. 16
Given current economic developments globally, and the ways those developments reflect on the Serbian market, what kind of operational results do AmCham members expect? According to the latest reports of the World Bank, global growth is expected to contract from 5.7% in 2021 to just 2.9% in 2022. This means that the global economic slowdown is continuing, and is now entering the phase of a prolonged
In your opinion, and according to AmCham members, where does room exist for Serbia’s new government to improve conditions for doing business in the Serbian economy? Digital transformation, the agenda for an environmentally clean and energy efficient Serbia, advancing the health care system and business integration through regional initiatives are four priorities that AmCham and its members will work on intensively during the