Serbia tops the Greenfield FDI Performance Index 2019. The country is ranked number one in the annual study by fDi Intelligence, a Financial Times data division, which looked at inbound greenfield investment in 2018 relative to the size of each country’s economy.

Serbia scores 11.92 in the index, and takes over as the index leader, up one position from the previous year. The second-ranked is Montenegro, which is a new entrant to the 2019 index.

As stated in the study, Serbia`s index score has improved by 1.33 index points. Although the country’s GDP growth was high in 2018 (14.8%), it received 107 FDI projects – 26 more than 2017 – growing by almost one-third.  

“Automotive components, food and tobacco, textiles and real estate are Serbia’s leading FDI sectors, and combined they accounted for more than half (54%) of total inbound FDI projects in 2018”, reports Financial Times.

The study points out that Serbia, with a score of 11.92 points, far exceeded her regional counterparts, including Lithuania and Bosnia and Herzegovina, which also have high index scores.