Country name: Republic of Serbia
Location: Southeastern Europe, between Macedonia and Hungary
Area: 88,361 sq km
Population: 9,396,411 (2002 census)
Capital: Belgrade
Language: Serbian (official); Romanian, Hungarian, Slovak, Ukrainian, and Croatian (all official in Vojvodina); Albanian (official in Kosovo)
Natural resources: oil, gas, coal, iron ore, copper, lead, zinc, antimony, chromite, nickel, gold, silver, magnesium, pyrite, limestone, marble, salt, arable land
Government type: republic
Legal system: based on civil law system
Currency: Serbian Dinar (RSD)
Serbia is a country situated in Southeastern Europe with a land comprising of 77,474 square kilometers and a population of approximately 10,000,000 people ( population estimate includes Kosovo). Capital city is Belgrade (Beograd) which is being crossed by two rivers. It also has an Old town in which the medieval architecture has been very well preserved. Serbia shares boundaries with 8 countries: Romania to the Northeast, Bulgaria to the East, Macedonia, Kosovo and Montenegro to the South, Bosnia and Herzegovina and Croatia to the West and Hungary to the North. The Northern Part of the country is mainly plain land while the central part of the country is occupied by high mountains and hills as well. The climate of the country is continental in general. It is mostly distinguished in the northern part of the country. Mediterranean climate is also noticeable; those air masses come from the south and southwest. Serbia has cold winters and hot and humid summers. The amount of rainfall is different in various regions of the country. However, the higher the altitude the greater the precipitation is. Rainfall is also high during the warm part of the year.
The history of Serbia is tightly connected to that of the former republic of Yugoslavia. Founded in the 1920s, republic of Yugoslavia comprised of Serbia, Macedonia, Bosnia and Herzegovina, Slovenia, Montenegro and Croatia. In 1989, Slobodan Milosevic became the president of the Serbian republic but his nationalist identity brought only harm to Yugoslavia. At the beginning of 1990s Slovenia, Macedonia, Croatia and Bosnia and Herzegovina became independent countries. Serbia and Montenegro remained one entity under the rule of Milosevic. His ultranationalist ideology led to Serbia being bombarded by NATO and eventually Milosevic being arrested and convicted in crime against humanity. Montenegro declared independence in 2006 and in February 2008 Kosovo also proclaimed itself independent from Serbia.
About four-fifths of the Serbian population is South-Slavic and the official spoken language in the country is Serbian. Due to its history, other languages such as Slovak, Ukrainian and Romanian are also spoken mainly in the north part of the country. More than 80% of the population classifies itself as being Serb. However, there are large amounts of minorities of which the largest is the Hungarian, followed by the Gypsy. The Eastern Orthodox Church is regarded as the tool that preserved the Serbian national identity through centuries of struggle and oppression by the Greek and Ottoman Turks. Although people did not go to church during Communist times, nowadays more than 80 % of the Serbian population identifies itself as Eastern Orthodox. The Hungarian part of the population is Catholic. Other minorities are Muslim.
Serbia is a republic. Its official currency is the Serbian dinar (RSD). One US dollar can be exchanged for 50.4436 RSD, while 1 Euro can be exchanged for 78.702 RSD.
Slobodan Milosevic was the individual responsible for the economic turndown in 1999of around 50 % compared to what the economy used to be in 1990. After the Milosevic-era was over, the Serbian economy was improving substantially. The economic output increased with nearly 45% in comparison to the beginning of the millennium. The real GDP growth has been steady since the beginning of 2001 averaging 6%. It went down to 2.5% in 2003 but rose up to 8.5% the following year. Public debt comprises more than one third of the GDP despite growth in exports. Despite that, the growth in FDI has been increasing, reaching 15-20% in 2007. 2006 turned out to be the best year for Serbia regarding FDI. The privatization of the NIS oil company has been slow but steady. The privatization of the bank sector is almost entirely completed. On the other hand, more than 25% of the employed people work for state-owned enterprises. The least attractive state companies have been left for privatizing at the end which put great burden on Serbian economy because those state enterprises were absorbing large amounts of fiscal subsidies. Serbia’s economic growth is more of a recovery than of any success. Production output has reached only 50% of0020that when Yugoslavia still existed. Major sectors such as vehicle manufacturing, textile and electronic devices have not recovered from the crisis at the beginning of 1990s.
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