A RISE IN SOUTH SERBIA’S PRODUCTION AND UNEMPLOYMENT

10. December 2014.

Industrial production in South Serbia increased by 3.3 percent in the first ten months of this year, which is quite an encouraging fact given that this year’s industrial production in Serbia was lower by as much as 6.3 percent.

The several years’ long poor picture of the economy of South Serbia is also made better by the achievement of the foreign trade surplus of 69 million dollars, which means that more work was done, more goods exported and less goods imported. However, such results aren’t followed by better salaries, which, compared to the national average, are lower by over 13 thousand dinars. The number of the unemployed increased, too, so that there are currently almost 35 thousand unemployed persons in the Jablanica district.

Those are only some of the data presented at the meeting of the Regional Chamber of Commerce (RCC) in Leskovac.

Sladjana Backovic, Director of the Fund for the Development of Serbia, said that this year the businessmen of Jablanica and Pcinj districts had shown more interest in the Fund’s loans than the businessmen of other districts, which, according to her, showed that the economic activity in those two districts was somewhat livelier. She also said that the Fund’s program for next year envisaged longer repayment periods for investment and working capital loans, adding that somewhat more favorable conditions would be provided for small and medium-sized enterprises and entrepreneurs

The session of the Assembly of the Regional Chamber of Commerce in Leskovac was attended by the Ambassador of Algeria, Abdel Kader Mesdoua, who was given a special award for the support and assistance in establishing commercial relations between Algeria and a dozen African and Middle Eastern countries with South Serbia’s businessmen.

Source: Jugmedia and Coordination Body