Chinese vendors leaving Serbia
16/11/2011
Thousands of Chinese are leaving Belgrade and other Serbian towns en masse, citing a decline in the public's purchasing power.
By Igor Jovanovic for Southeast European Times in Belgrade – 16/11/11
 Many Chinese-owned businesses are leaving the country. [Nikola Barbutov/SETimes] |
The Chinese shopping mall in Belgrade's Block 70 was known as a very crowded place buzzing with business activity.
Up until mid-2010, many of the 6,000 Chinese vendors in the capital marketed their goods to thousands of Serbs.
One was barely able to enter the premises, while piles of scattered cardboard boxes and the traffic around the mall irritated many nearby residents.
Today, the mall is nearly empty and numerous closed shops feature "For rent" or "For sale" signs. Vendors who still conduct business say that sales are down and people are buying only the cheapest goods.
"People simply have no more money, which is dramatically reducing our revenue. That is why we are moving out of Serbia, where we were well accepted. Whoever can go to an EU country does so, whereas those who can't move even farther away," shop owner Sun Yei told SETimes.
Yei said his compatriots were well received since arriving in the mid-1990s, but are now moving due to a dramatic decline in purchasing power.
According to data from a local Chinese association, around 3,000 Chinese citizens have left Belgrade since 2010.
Economic analyst Marica Vukovic argues that the Chinese vendors' departure will not be felt much at the macroeconomic level. It will, however, severely affect the poorest segment of the population which purchased inexpensive Chinese products to get by.
Vukovic added it will also negatively affect those who leased shops and apartments to the Chinese, as well as workers and the transport sector tied to Chinese businesses.
"Unemployment in Serbia is around 19% and the loss of any job is not good news," she said.
According to official data, the average monthly salary in September was 380 euros.
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