BELGRADE, Jan 6 (Reuters) - Serbia's current account deficit reached $7.9 billion in the 11 months to November 2008, up 45 percent up year-on-year, the central bank said on Tuesday.
The figures showed the gap in Serbia's balance of payments being bridged by more than $1.3 billion from the central bank's foreign currency reserves.
Analysts said the central bank had used some of its reserves to buy dinars to slow the local currency's depreciation, while a rush by local depositors to withdraw money from their bank accounts in October and November had reduced the amount of reserves the banks were obliged to hold at the central bank.
Net foreign direct investments topped $2.67 billion, but portfolio investment remained negative at $98.7 million for the whole 11-month period.
The figures compared with $1.77 billion in net foreign direct investment and $917 million in portfolio investment in the same period last year.
Serbia had originally forecast an inflow of $5.0 billion worth of investment in 2008 on hopes that investors would be encouraged by the country's improved European Union accession prospects following the election of a pro-Western government, the arrest of Bosnian Serb wartime President Radovan Karadzic and ratification of a pre-accession agreement with the EU.
But the global financial crisis later forced the government into amending the forecast down to around $3.0 billion.
SERBIA'S BALANCE OF PAYMENTS JAN-NOV JAN-OCT JAN-NOV 07 CURRENT ACCOUNT BALANCE (mln USD) - 7,902 -7,526 - 5,444 - Goods - 10,426 - 9,716 - 8,096 - Services - 259 - 258 - 333 - Income - 1,104 - 1,056 - 671 - Current transfers 3,886 3,504 3,656 CAPITAL ACCOUNT BALANCE 7,764 7,441 5,269 - Capital account 20 22 - 410 - FDIs 2,670 2,558 1,774 - Portfolio - 99 - 92 917 - Other investments 3,813 4,073 4,250 - Central bank financing 1,359 881 - 1,262 ERRORS AND OMISSIONS 138 85 175 (Reporting by Gordana Filipovic; Editing by Ruth Pitchford)