According to the balance of payments projections of the National Bank of Serbia (NBS), the 2011 direct foreign investments should be among Serbia's most important inflows from abroad amounting to about USD 2 billion.

It is important to pour these inflows into trade and manufacturing - mainly base metals, textile and motor vehicles production, the NBS Inflation Report -August 2011 reads.

In the trade sector, apart from what Delhaize Group has already invested in the Delta Maxi trade chain, additional investment from this group is expected into trade chains C market, Srbija, Pekabeta and Zvezda. In addition, Merkator announced more investment for 2011.

In the past three years, Serbia saw buoyant investment in the base metals production (Smederevo steel producer US Steel, Kikinda Foundry), and H1 data and announcements for the coming period bear out the assumption that the trend will continue.

Textile production attracted Italian Benetton, whose inaugural investments into Serbian textile industry this year will be followed by new ones, according to announcements.

Other sectors awaiting foreign investments are finance (banks, but also insurance companies), telecommunications, construction and energy.

The most significant announced foreign direct investment in Serbia is the project of Fiat Automobiles Serbia, with the launch of production of new automobile models set for 2012, almost entirely export-oriented and targeting predominantly the EU market.