Competitiveness of food manufacturing of Republic of Serbia

Abstract

The subject of paper is export competitiveness of food manufacturing of Republic of Serbia during the period 1996-2016. The analysis of export competitiveness was realised by using the following indicators: Revealed comparative advantage (RCA), Competitiveness growth index (RCA1), Index of net business performance (RCA2), Index of contribution to the trade balance (CTB), Grubel-Lloyd index (GLI) and Michaely index (MI). The results show that RCA values were positive in all years, which speaks of comparative advantage of this industry on the domestic market. Since the RCA1 values were higher than one, they revealed export competitiveness. The positive values of RCA2 during the period 2005-2016 bear witness of contribution of food manufacturing in foreign trade balance of Serbian economy. The average value of CTB index was 3.998 and its positive annual values showed that the contribution of food manufacturing in the total trade balance was positive. The change of GLI values pointed to the loss of ability of the sector to create surplus of national trade balance. Positive annual values of MI confirmed the competitiveness of food manufacturing, but also its insufficient specialisation.