Serbia

This report was prompted by a concern, voiced by the Ministry of Finance and Economy, the Fiscal Council and some members of the donor community that local governments... Show More + in Serbia are contributing too little to the resolution of Serbia's current fiscal problems. Since the onset of the European economic crisis in 2008, the central government has confronted declining real tax revenues and stubbornly high expenditure obligations. While it has been slow to adjust, there is evidence that the new government now intends to make significant fiscal adjustments, by both raising revenues and cutting spending. Local governments, on the other hand, have been partially shielded from the revenue downturn, through a recent increase in their share of the payroll tax and a relaxation of subnational debt ceilings. As a result, local governments are now part of the deficit problem, rather than part of the deficit solution. This report is aimed at reversing this situation; at finding ways in which local governments can contribute to the reduction of the consolidated fiscal deficit. In the process, it examines the nature of local government spending, the functions that local government provide, with an eye to identifying how these services might be provided more cost effectively. Show Less -

In order to have both dynamic and better balanced growth, Serbia needs to rely more on exports. In the last decade, Serbia's growth has depended primarily on demand... Show More + that was fueled by excessive debt finance. In the future, the Serbian economy would be better served by increasing its reliance on exports as a new, potentially powerful source of growth. Serbia's export share of Gross Domestic Product (GDP) is currently 25 percent, but that figure should be closer to 50-75 percent, considering that all European Union (EU) comparator countries1 have export shares of GDP of 60-80 percent. Some sectors of the economy are already better positioned than others to export. For example, sectors in the traditional export base of Serbia, such as food and some chemical products still have vast potential for growth. Agriculture is widely considered to have significant potential for improvement. Although Serbia has recently become a net food exporter, these exports could be substantially higher. The Serbian government's number one task is to accelerate reforms to create an environment that is highly conducive to export-led growth. Serbia will need to fundamentally alter its growth model in order to compete effectively in world markets. The past model of relying on excessive inflows of capital and credit coupled with a consumption boom has run its course in all European countries, including Serbia. Show Less -

This tenth edition of Doing Business sheds light on how easy or difficult it is for a local entrepreneur to open and run a small to medium-size business when complying... Show More + with relevant regulations. It measures and tracks changes in regulations affecting eleven areas in the life cycle of a business: starting a business, dealing with construction permits, getting electricity, registering property, getting credit, protecting investors, paying taxes, trading across borders, enforcing contracts, resolving insolvency and employing workers. Doing Business presents quantitative indicators on business regulations and the protection of property rights that can be compared across 185 economies, from Afghanistan to Zimbabwe, over time. The indicators are used to analyze economic outcomes and identify what reforms have worked, where and why. This economy profile presents the Doing Business indicators for Serbia. To allow useful comparison, it also provides data for other selected economies (comparator economies) for each indicator. The data in this report are current as of June 1, 2012 (except for the paying taxes indicators, which cover the period January - December 2011). Show Less -

This report has been prepared under the Serbia education in support of the efforts of the ministry of education and science to work on improving education quality despite... Show More + the context of a difficult financing reform and the overall fiscal austerity linked to the economic crisis. World Bank convened a workshop in Belgrade with a small group of representatives from the Serbian ministry of education and science, ministry of finance, as well as other agencies and independent research institutes. The aims of the workshop included agreeing on a research agenda under Serbia's participation in the World Bank boost initiative and increasing the transparency and timely provision of education sector data for the design of the per capita funding formulae. The report is divided into five main sections: (i) presents the context and motivation for this work; (ii) describes the data collected for the analysis and its sources; (iii) outlines the analytical methods employed; (iv) discusses the findings and results of the analysis; and (v) suggests the appropriate next steps to guide future analytical work. Show Less -

This report looks beyond the current global financial crisis to the restoration of dynamic long-run growth in Serbia. The answer in this report is that Serbia will need... Show More + to fundamentally alter its growth model to compete effectively in world markets. The past model relying on excessive inflows of capital and credit that, in part, fuelled a consumption boom has run its course in all European countries. Serbia must shift to a greater export orientation so that it can attain the major gains in productivity and competitiveness necessary to propel economic growth to a much higher trajectory. This cannot happen without an explicit export strategy, and a set of concomitant structural reforms, driven by commitment and coordination at the highest political level. This report tries to pinpoint policy actions that will be most effective in raising the rate of productivity growth of Serbia's enterprises so that better export performance and sustained growth could be achieved. The report has three parts. Part one reviews Serbia's macroeconomic situation and its progress on structural reforms. Part two starts with a review of the current status of Serbia's exports and trade policy and regional trade arrangements. It then uses product space (PS) analysis to examine areas where Serbia has a revealed or potential comparative advantage. The report then moves on to two such areas, metal processing and automobile production, which are subjected to value chain analysis to identify bottlenecks that need to be removed for Serbia to become a successful producer and exporter in these areas. The final part of the report looks at obstacles to more rapid and sustainable development of production and exports. It starts with the analysis of the business environment, based on a range of surveys, which is followed by four sectoral chapters that discuss the obstacles found to be most binding in the business environment: labor skills, power supply and efficiency of its use, use of land, and trade facilitation. Show Less -

This report presents findings of a study of Bank lending to small and medium enterprises (SME) in Serbia1. The study uses methodology developed by the Bank and already... Show More + used in a number of studies in South America. The study is based on answers to standard questionnaires and detailed on-site interviews with eight banks. The interviewed banks are the most active in SME lending in Serbia and account for about 70 percent of the total market. Banks are currently offering a fairly broad range of both tailored and standardized products and are increasingly flexible with product pricing. This includes checking, savings and time deposit accounts; export and import loans; overdrafts for working capital and investment loans; business credit cards; various types of payment services; Internet and phone banking. The report is organized as follows: section two describes the banking sector and markets in Serbia, reviews definition of SMEs and provides key characteristics of the SME finance market in Serbia. Section three discusses details of SME access to finance. It describes the drivers and obstacles, government programs, and characteristics of the market environment. Section four focuses on how banks engage in lending to SMEs, describing their business models and their risk management. Section five provides a number of conclusions on the conditions of access and future trends. Show Less -

In support of the multi-annual efforts of the Government of Serbia to advance financing policies and practice in the education sector, the World Bank conducted a review... Show More + of policies related to school finance along the Systems Approach for Better Education Results (SABER)-school finance framework. School finance policy goals are observed in the following areas: the basic conditions for learning, monitoring learning conditions and outcomes, overseeing service delivery, budgeting with adequate and transparent information, providing more resources to students who need them, and managing resources efficiently. The Serbia report for 2012 is one of the first national reports under the global benchmarking exercise of the World Bank, in the area of school finance, aimed at outlining policies that drive performance in a school finance system. This report presents findings on the strengths and weaknesses of the school finance system in Serbia. It discusses the need to use more efficiently the public expenditure available for education in the country, and it looks at the policy goals in financing public education more broadly. Show Less -

The recent economic growth and competitiveness of Serbia and other Western Balkan countries is closely linked to the transition process and reform implementation. All... Show More + the countries of the region are in the process of European Union (EU) accession, which provides a unique incentive for political and economic reform. This project to gauge reform implementation in the region, focusing on regulatory reform, was intended to compare progress across the countries of the region and recommend future steps. This report found that in order to generate more balanced and sustainable growth, Western Balkan countries will need to discover new sources of growth, complete reform implementation and further improve their business and investment environments. In this context, regulatory reform is in the focus of the research, as preconditions for future growth and for harmonization of Western Balkan legal systems with the EU acquits. Show Less -

The Status of Projects in Execution (SOPE) Report for FY10 provides information on all International Bank for Reconstruction and Development (IBRD), International Development... Show More + Association (IDA), and trust funded projects that were active as of June 30, 2010. The report is intended to bridge the gap in information available to the public between the project appraisal document or program document, disclosed after the Bank approves a project, and the implementation completion report, disclosed after the project closes. In addition to the project progress description, the FY10 SOPE report contains project level comparisons of disbursement estimates and actual disbursements, and a table showing the loan/credit/grant amount and disbursements to date. Show Less -