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With a GDP for 2008 estimated at $80.717 billion ($10,985 per capita PPP), the Republic of Serbia is considered an upper-middle income economy by the World Bank. FDI (Foreign Direct Investment) in 2006 was $5.85 billion or €4.5 billion. FDI for 2007 reached $4.2 Billion while real GDP per capita figures are estimated to have reached $7,100 (October 2008). The GDP growth rate showed increase by 6.3% (2005), 5.8% (2006), reaching 7.5% in 2007 and 8.7% in 2008 as the fastest growing economy in the region.
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At the beginning of the process of economic transition (1989), its favorable economic outlook in the region was hampered by politics, its economy being gravely impacted by the UN economic sanctions of 1992–95, as well as the sizable infrastructure and industry damage, suffered during the Kosovo war. Its problems were only augmented by losing the ex-Yugoslavia and Comecon markets. After the ousting of former Federal Yugoslav President Miloševic in October 2000, the country experienced faster economic growth, and has been preparing for membership in the European Union, its most important trading partner.
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The recovery of the economy still faces many problems, among which unemployment (14%) high export/import trade deficit and considerable national debt are most prominent. The country expects some major economic impulses and high growth rates in the next years. Serbia has been occasionally called a "Balkan tiger" because of its recent high economic growth rates, which averaged 6.6% (in the past three years), with FDI at its record levels.
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Apart from its free-trade agreement with the EU as its associate member, Serbia is the only European country outside the former Soviet Union to have free-trade agreements with the Russian Federation and, more recently, Belarus. Apart from its favorable economic agreements with both the East and West, such steps could be soon undertaken with Turkey and Iran. By doing this Serbia hopes to establish an export-oriented economy.
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Serbia grows about one-third of the world's raspberries and is the leading frozen fruit exporter.
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