SERBIA:

Serbia's GDP grows 3.4% y/y in Q4
Serbia's gross domestic product (GDP) grew by a real 3.4% year-on-year in the fourth quarter of 2018, the country's statistical office said on Friday. On a quarterly comparison basis, Serbia's economy expanded by 0.3% in the fourth quarter of 2018, the statistical office said. The fourth quarter of 2018 saw a significant real growth of gross value added in the agriculture, forestry and fishing, of 15.6% year-on-year, while the wholesale and retail trade sector expanded by 6.5%. Among GDP components, households' expenditures on final consumption increased by an annual 3.2% in the fourth quarter, whereas general government expenditures on final consumption grew by 3.3%.
Source: SeeNews, SORS

Through membership in Asian Infrastructure Investment Bank to favorable credits
The Government of Serbia has adopted the Draft Law on the Confirmation of the Founding Act of the Asian Infrastructure Investment Bank (AIIB), which currently has 93 member-states. Among them are also countries from outside the Asian-Pacific region, such as Great Britain, Germany, France, Italy, Netherlands, Spain and others. The membership in this organization will provide Serbia with access to favorable credits for the realization of priority projects, the Government’s PR office says in a press release. In December 2018, the Board of Governors of the AIIB, headquartered in Beijing, approved Serbia’s membership request.
Izvor: Ekapija

Unemployment at almost 13% at the end of 2018
The unemployment rate in Serbia stood at 12.9 percent in the fourth quarter of 2018, the Serbian Statistics Office said on Thursday. According to the relevant data, the workforce numbered 2,817,400 with 416,600 people registered as unemployed. The unemployment rate among Serbian citizens aged 15 and over stood at 47.4 per cent with unemployment among men standing at 55 percent and among women at 40.3 percent. So-called informal employment stood at 18.1 percent with 57.5 per cent of the informal sector working in the farming industry.
Source: Serbianmonitor, SORS

REGION:

Bulgarian company restarts tendering procedure for construction of gas pipeline from Turkey to Serbia
The Bulgarian state company Bulgartransgaz has restarted the EUR 1.4 billion tendering procedure for the gas pipeline through Bulgaria, from the Turkish border to Serbia. Previously, in mid-February, the company announced that it had stopped the procedure “Procurement of the necessary materials and equipment, investment design – detailed design phase, construction and commissioning of project: Expansion of the gas transmission infrastructure of Bulgartransgaz EAD parallel to the north (main) gas pipeline to the Bulgarian-Serbian border” due to a complaint by Atomenergoremont based on the Public Procurement Law.
Source: Ekapija

INO:

Stocks rise, pushing the S&P 500 to close above key 2,800 level for the first time since November, Europe markets close higher after fresh US-China trade comments
Stocks rose on Friday, the first day of March, as investors built on the market's strongest start to a year in nearly three decades. The S&P 500 ended the day up 0.7 percent at 2,803.69, closing above 2,800 for the first time since Nov. 8. The Dow Jones Industrial Average closed 110.32 points higher at 26,026.32 as Nike and Chevron outperformed. The Nasdaq Composite advanced 0.8 percent to 7,595.35, led by gains in Amazon.
Bloomberg News reported Thursday that U.S. officials are getting a final trade deal ready for President Donald Trump and Chinese President Xi Jinping to sign around mid-March.
Shares of Tesla dropped more than 7 percent after CEO Elon Musk said the company would not turn a profit for the first quarter. Tesla launched its standard Model 3 car, which starts at $35,000. However, analysts were unimpressed by the announcement. A Barclays analyst even called it the "un-iPhone moment."
Amazon shares rose nearly 2 percent after The Wall Street Journal reported the company had plans to open its own grocery store chain at a lower price point than Whole Foods. Shares of Kroger took a beating on the news, sliding more than 4 percent.
European stocks traded higher Friday, beginning the first trading day of March on a positive note. The pan-European Stoxx 600 finished provisionally up 0.35 percent with almost every sector in positive territory. Autos were the top performing sector, with Faurecia leading the gains, up more than 5 percent. The French auto equipment firm said that it's to buy Clarion and launch a Japan-based business group in April.
Oil giant Shell also saw shares slip slightly after confirmation that it's facing multiple charges over corruption, emissions, and an explosion at its Moerdijk facility in 2014.
Source: CNBC