Serbia's GDP drops 1.9 percent in first quarter

BELGRADE - Serbia's gross domestic product (GDP) fell by 1.9 percent in real terms in the first quarter of 2015 against a year earlier, according to a quarterly flash estimate by the Statistical Office of the Republic of Serbia (RZS).

The calculation of the quarterly GDP for the first quarter of 2015, which includes a lot of data, comprised using a low level aggregation weights and deflation method, will be published in Quarterly GDP in the Republic of Serbia, a quarterly release, on May 29, 2015, the RZS said in a release on Thursday.

INDUSTRIAL OUTPUT DROPS BY 0.2 PERCENT IN MARCH

Serbia's industrial output has dropped by 0.2 percent in March compared to the same month of last year, growing by 8.6 percent compared to last year's average, the national statistical office said in a statement on Thursday.

Industrial output dropped by 2.0 percent in the period between January and March compared to the same period of 2014.

By sectors, compared to March 2014, mining dropped by 16.3 percent, electricity, gas and steam supplies and air conditioning dropped by 10.8 percent, while the processing industry sector grew by 5.4 percent.

According to the seasonally adjusted Index, industrial output grew by 2.0 percent in March compared to the month before, while the processing industry grew by 2.5 percent.

Compared to the 2014 average, industrial output grew by 3.9 percent in March this year according to the seasonally adjusted index, with the processing industry growing by 6.1 percent.