Revenues from Serbia’s services from January to September this year exceeded foreign exchange expenditures by 1.3 billion euros.
According to data from the National Bank of Serbia, this is an increase in the surplus compared to the first nine months of last year by more than 30 percent, reports Beta referring to the portal Danas.
The export of services in nine months reached 7.75 billion euros, while the import was 6.5 billion euros. The export of computer services from January to September amounted to 1.76 billion euros, which is an increase compared to the same period last year by as much as 45 percent, or about 550 million euros.
The total surplus in the exchange of computer services amounted to 1.35 billion euros. A significant source of foreign currency in that income was also business services, of which 1.95 billion euros entered Serbia, which is 490 million more than in the first three quarters of last year.
However, the surplus in these services is significantly smaller than in IT and amounted to 717 million euros.
The third important source of foreign currency inflows and outflows from the country is tourism. In the first nine months, thanks to tourism, 1.74 billion euros came into Serbia, which is 50 percent more than last year, according to Danas.
But the situation is similar with imports, which in the case of tourism means trips of Serbian citizens abroad, because 1.75 billion euros were spent, which is even 72 percent more than in the same period last year.
A total of seven million euros is a deficit in the exchange of tourist services, compared to a surplus of 136 million euros created during the nine months of last year.
In the transport sector in the first nine months, the deficit was 629 million euros, and it was entirely the result of higher expenses than income for the transport of goods, which amounted to 666 million euros in nine months.
Of the total export of services, almost 80 percent is exported to Europe, but about 47 percent to the European Union. The total deficit in the exchange of services with the EU was 221 million euros.
With 808 million euros, the most important market for services from Serbia is Germany. The next largest export market is Great Britain with 631 million euros and Switzerland with 506 million euros. In addition, 360 million euros of services were exported to Bosnia and Herzegovina, and 314 million euros to Russia.
Outside of Europe, the most important player is the United States of America, to which 896.5 million euros worth of services were exported.
One of the few countries with which Serbia has a deficit in the exchange of services is China, to which exports were worth 103 million, while imports were 280 million euros, and Turkey, where exports of services were 182 million euros, and imports were 460 million euros, Biznis writes.
