During the last three months of 2024, companies in Serbia achieved 6,3 percent higher business income compared to the same period in 2023, but at the same time, business expenses also increased - by 7,8 percent, which indicates that, in general, towards the end of the year, the pressure on the profitability of the Serbian economy.
The highest growth was recorded in the sector accommodation and nutrition, while agriculture recorded a decline in business income. As expected, incomes in the IT sector were mostly growing, writes Dunja Marić for The new economy.
The Republic Institute of Statistics has published a report on the quarterly operations of companies.
The report refers to the fourth quarter of the previous year, and the data was processed in the sectors of agriculture, construction, trade, transport, accommodation and food, information and information and communication technologies.
Although all sectors record growth in business income, i.e. income from the sale of goods and services, at the same time, they all also record growth in business expenses, i.e. the costs they incur while performing their activities. Therefore, business revenues in the last quarter of 2024 were 6,3 percent higher compared to the same period in 2023, but expenses were also higher - by 7,8 percent.
When the fourth quarter is compared with the third quarter of 2024, it can be seen that revenues increased by 9,2 percent and expenses by 10,6 percent.
Of all sectors, the highest growth in business income for one year was recorded in accommodation and catering, by 25,7 percent. Compared to the previous quarter, the growth is lower - 5,03 percent. The reason for the increase in income should be found in the prices of catering services, which are constantly increasing. From December 2023 to the same month in 2024 alone, hospitality services grew 14,1 percent.
On the contrary, the most unsuccessful was the agriculture sector, which recorded a 7,1 percent drop in income in one year. However, expenditures also decreased by 2,2 percent. Such results are not surprising, bearing in mind that the state of agriculture in our country is bad, which is often pointed out by farmers.
The industry and construction sector achieved almost double the growth in expenditure than the growth in income. More precisely, revenues in this sector increased by 6,5 percent and expenditures by 11,9 percent in one year.
What is the state of the IT industry?
The information and communication sector (ICT) achieved an 11,6 percent increase in revenue for the year, and compared to the third quarter, the growth was 25,5 percent. Expenditures in the last quarter of last year were 11,4 percent higher compared to the same period in 2023. If the expenditures are compared to the third quarter of 2024, the expenses increased by as much as 25,9 percent.
By the way, in the processing industry of the ICT sector, the biggest increase in income for one year, 36,9 percent, was achieved in the production of communication equipment, although their expenses increased almost the same - 36,7 percent. Income from the sale of computers and equipment was 5,4 percent lower, while expenses increased by 17,6 percent.
As for services in the ICT sector, revenue increased by 31,2 percent in software publishing. At the same time, expenditures in this area were reduced by 1,8 percent. A drop in profit was recorded in the wholesale trade of ICT equipment, by 1,8 percent. Expenditures in this area were also reduced by 1,5 percent.
State officials have repeatedly confirmed that the ICT sector in Serbia is doing well. Thus, the director of the Office for IT and eGovernment, Mihailo Jovanović, stated in January that the total export of these services from January to November 2024 amounted to 3,712 billion euros, which surpassed last year's record.
As stated at the time, only in November 2024, the export of ICT services amounted to 371 million euros, which is 20 percent more compared to the same month in 2023. New economy.
