SERBIA:

Serbia experiencing boom in development of shopping malls, retail parks
Serbia is experiencing a boom in development of shopping centres and retail parks and an additional 250,000 sq m of such space is expected to be built over the next two years, a real estate and infrastructure conference in Belgrade was told Thursday. There will be many new projects soon and many new brands will come as a result of an expansion in the sector, participants of the conference told Tanjug. The trend has swept across nearly all countries in the region except Croatia, where it has already run its course as almost all of even the smaller towns already have retail parks or shopping centres.
Source: Tanjug

Serbia to boost tourism revenue to 1.7 bln dollars
Serbia's net foreign exchange revenue from tourism was 1.5 bln dollars in 2018 and 1.7 bln is the goal for this year, Serbian Deputy PM and Minister of Trade, Tourism and Telecommunications Rasim Ljajic said as the International Tourism Fair opened in Belgrade Thursday. Ljajic said 2018 had been a record year for Serbian tourism and that the result had been achieved two years earlier than planned according to the Tourism Development Strategy.
Izvor: Tanjug

NBS, SORS: Annual inflation in January at 2.1%
January 2019 consumer prices in Serbia rose by 0.4% on average compared to December last year and by 2.1% mpared to January 2018, the national statistical office RZS said in a statement. According to the statement, 2018 inflation was 2 pct higher compared to 2017. Observed by main groups according to the destination of consumption in January 2019 in relation to the previous month, an increase of prices was noted in the Food and non-alcoholic beverages and Recreation and culture groups (by 1.3 pct each).
Source: Tanjug

REGION:

FAO, EBRD: Way paved for Serbian wheat exports to Egypt
The government of Egypt - the world's largest wheat importer - launched a tender this week to buy 60,000 t of wheat, with Serbia now among the countries that may apply. Paving the way for Serbian wheat exports to Egypt is a concrete result of joint efforts by the Serbian Ministry of Economy, the UN FAO, the EBRD and the Serbia Grains Association as part of several projects that have promoted Serbian grain and oilseed exports over the past three years, a FAO/EBRD statement said. An Egyptian Ministry of Agriculture delegation visited Serbia last week to reaffirm a September 2018 decision by the Egyptian government to certify Serbia for wheat exports to the country after 30 years..
Source: Tanjug

INO:

Dow rises more than 180 points to retake 26,000, notches 9-week winning streak, European markets close higher as US-China trade talks wrap up
Stocks rose on Friday as another round of trade talks between the U.S. and China wrapped up with investors increasingly more hopeful a deal will be struck. The Dow Jones Industrial Average gained 181.18 points to 26,031.81 as Intel outperformed. The Nasdaq Composite advanced 0.9 percent to 7,527.54 as shares of Facebook, Amazon, Netflix and Alphabet all closed higher. The S&P 500 climbed 0.6 percent to 2,792.67, led by gains in the tech sector.
Intel shares rose more than 2 percent on Friday after Morgan Stanley upgraded the stock to overweight from equal weight, noting Intel could get a boost now that Bob Swan is the full-time CEO.
Shares of Kraft Heinz plummeted 27.46 percent after the consumer products company disclosed an SEC subpoena from an investigation into its accounting practices. The company also disclosed a $15.4 billion write down.
European stocks closed slightly higher Friday afternoon, as market participants monitored trade talks between the world's two largest economies. The pan-European Stoxx 600 closed up by around 0.3 percent provisionally, with most sectors and major bourses ending in positive territory. On the week, the benchmark was up by around 0.6 percent.
Looking at individual stocks, France's Sopra Steria Group surged to the top of the European benchmark. The consultancy group reported full-year revenue jumped almost 7 percent in 2018 and forecast a slight improvement in operating margin on business activity. Shares of the Paris-listed stock rose more than 17 percent on the news.
Source: CNBC