World Bank Group, 2023.

Social protection situational analyses for Albania, Bosnia and Herzegovina, Kosovo, Montenegro, North Macedonia, and Serbia discuss the complexity of social protection systems across the Western Balkans, while a Western Balkan Summary Note provides a regional overview of common challenges and offers four main areas of reform to reduce poverty and vulnerability.

OECD, OECD Publishing, 2022.

The book examines the key tourism recovery challenges and outlook ahead, and highlights the need for co-ordinated, forward-looking policy approaches to set tourism on a path to a more resilient, sustainable and inclusive future. Evidence on the significance of the tourism economy is presented, with data covering domestic, inbound and outbound tourism, enterprises and employment, and internal tourism consumption. Tourism policy priorities, reforms and developments are analysed and examples of country practices highlighted. Thematic chapters provide insights on building resilience in the tourism ecosystem and promoting a green tourism recovery.

OECD, 2024.

In 2022, the Programme for International Student Assessment (PISA) assessed the creative thinking abilities of 15-year-old students. The test explores how well students can generate diverse and creative ideas, and how well they can evaluate and improve others’ ideas to reach creative outcomes. Tasks in the test are situated in four domain contexts: written expression, visual expression, social problem solving and scientific problem solving. Volume III of PISA 2022 Results gives insights into how well education systems are preparing students to think outside the box and to come up with creative ideas in a range of different contexts. By comparing results internationally, policymakers and educators in Serbia can learn from other countries’ policies and practices.

Bailey, D.S., International Monetary Fund, 2022.

In 2022, Serbia introduced a new budget system law with fiscal rules based on general government, as defined in the international statistical standards. The Serbian Ministry of Finance is committed to upgrading their fiscal reporting so as to report against these fiscal rules by 2025. Against this background, the International Monetary Fund’s Statistics Department has provided technical assistance during 2022 and 2023 to assist the MOF to extend and improve their monthly government finance statistics, in accordance with the Government Finance Statistics Manual 2014, to cover all materially significant general government units.

International Monetary Fund, IMF Staff Country Reports, (202), 2024.

Serbia continues to recover well from the energy crisis. The authorities remain committed to policies that will help maintain strong external and fiscal buffers and that will support disinflation. With the planned large increases in public investment, it will be important to further strengthen public investment management and transparency. Additional energy pricing and governance reforms will bolster SOE finances. The authorities will continue to treat the SBA as precautionary.

International Bank for Reconstruction and Development, The World Bank, 2022.

A stronger social protection system is needed to increase the Serbian population’s resilience to shocks, foster human capital growth and address inequities. In the past 13 years, Serbia has been hit by a global financial crisis (2008), an extreme weather disaster (2014) and a global pandemic (2020). Whether economic-, environmental- or health-derived, each of these shocks has plunged the economy into recession and disproportionately impacted the poor and vulnerable. In addition, Serbia faces mounting long-term challenges to prosperity.

OECD, OECD Publishing, 2024.

This is the fourth study of the region (formerly under the title 'Competitiveness in South East Europe') and it comprehensively assesses policy reforms in the WB6 economies across 15 policy areas key to strengthening their competitiveness. It enables WB6 economies to compare economic performance against regional peers, as well as EU-OECD good practices and standards, and to design future policies based on rich evidence and actionable policy recommendations.

World Bank Group, 2024.

A semi-annual report on recent economic developments and the outlook in the Western Balkans (Albania, Bosnia and Herzegovina, Kosovo, Montenegro, North Macedonia, and Serbia). This spring’s edition titled “Invigorating Growth” looks at the economic and social effects of multiple shocks to the region, including the impact of Russia’s invasion of Ukraine, the energy crisis in Europe, and slowdown in global growth. Completing the green series, this edition’s spotlight focuses on greening the cities in the Western Balkans.