"Inflation biggest improvement in macroeconomic indicators"

"Inflation biggest improvement in macroeconomic indicators"

"Serbia shares this position with another 42 countries, since best performers boast average annual inflation rate ranging from 0.5 to 2.9 percent. Under this criterion, deflation and high inflation are considered equally detrimental for the economy, so countries undergoing deflation were ranked much lower than Serbia. In view of inflation movements in the first eight months of 2015 and the NBS's projection until end of year, it is likely that under this criterion Serbia will keep the first position in the coming year as well," an NBS statement said, and added:

"A tool used to measure national competitiveness, the global competitiveness index, is a composite index calculated based on 12 competitiveness pillars. The pillars are organised in three groups – basic requirements (institutions, infrastructure, macroeconomic environment, health and primary education), efficiency enhancers (higher education and training, goods market efficiency, labor market efficiency, financial market development, technological readiness and market size) and innovation and sophistication factors (business sophistication, innovation)."

"Under each pillar, representing a composite index of a number of indicators, a country is assigned value and ranking. Change in the pillar value indicates whether the country has progressed or deteriorated in the given area in the period observed, while the ranking enables cross-country comparisons. Observed both by pillar value and ranking, Serbia recorded greatest improvements from the year before in the areas of health and primary education (by six positions) and macroeconomic environment (four positions)," the Serbian central bank said.

According to the WEF Competitiveness Report, published on Wednesday, Serbia maintained last year's overall 94th position on a list of 140 countries. Largest improvements were observed in areas of health, elementary education, and macroeconomic environment.