Minister of Trade and Services Slobodan Milosavljevic said today that the projection of the economic policy for 2011 is an annual inflation rate of 6% to 8%, which would allow a slightly better purchasing power of citizens.

Milosavljevic told the Tanjug news agency that this goal will be achieved given the measures taken by the National Bank of Serbia (NBS) and the Ministry of Finance.

I believe that we will have a somewhat lower inflation than in 2010, enabling a something better purchasing power and more complete consumer price basket in Serbia, the Minister reiterated.

He expressed hope that growth of industrial production will continue in 2011, which last year amounted to approximately 4%.

I expect that in 2011 GDP growth will be around 3%, he said.

The Minister recalled that the year 2010 was the second year of the biggest world's economic crisis since World War II.

Last year the Serbian economy led a battle for survival and there was a small recovery in relation to 2009, while the average citizen of Serbia led the battle for everyday survival, he said.