[32] The country's primary industrial exports are automobiles, base metals, furniture, food processing, machinery, chemicals, sugar, tires, clothes, and pharmaceuticals.

[34] After the overthrow of Slobodan Milošević in 2000, Serbia went through a process of transition to a market-based economy and experienced fast economic growth.

During that period, the Serbian economy grew 4-5% annually, average wages quadrupled, and economic and social opportunities dramatically improved.

During the Great Recession, Serbia marked a decline in its economy of 3.1% in 2009, and following years of economic stagnation pre-crisis level of GDP was reached only in 2016.

[39] Serbia's net debt is currently below 60% of GDP defined by the Maastricht criteria as the upper limit of an acceptable level.

[42] Serbia's public debt relative to GDP from 2000 to 2008 decreased by 140.1 percentage points, and then started increasing again as the government was fighting effects of worldwide 2008 financial crisis.

[43] Serbian foreign exchange reserves were highly augmented from 2000 to 2009, when they amounted 10.6 billion euros and have stayed at that level ever since.

[45] For a limited number of products (baby beef, sugar, and wine), annual import quotas remain in effect.

[47] Serbia signed a free trade agreement with EFTA members (Switzerland, Norway, Iceland) in 2009.

[48] The Serbian free-trade agreement with Russia was implemented since 2000; for a limited number of products, annual import quotas remain in effect.

[49] Trade with the United States is pursued under the Generalized System of Preferences (GSP) with a preferential duty-free entry for approximately 4,650 products.

[52] Leading investor nations in Serbia include: Germany, Italy, United States, China, Austria, Norway, and Greece.

[54] Blue-chip corporations making investments in manufacturing sector include: Fiat Chrysler Automobiles, Bosch, Michelin, Siemens, Panasonic, Continental, Schneider Electric, Philip Morris, LafargeHolcim, PepsiCo, Coca-Cola, Carlsberg and others.

In retail sector, biggest foreign investors are Dutch Ahold Delhaize, German Metro AG and Schwarz Gruppe, Greek Veropoulos, and Croatian Fortenova.

[65][66] Other important agricultural products are: sunflower, sugar beet, soybean, potato, apple, mutton, pork meat, beef, poultry and dairy.

Serbia's proven reserves of 5.5 billion tons of coal lignite are the 5th largest in the world (second in Europe, after Germany).

[76] The entire production of electricity is concentrated in Elektroprivreda Srbije (EPS), public electric-utility power company.

[83] Main industrial sectors include: automotive, mining, non-ferrous metals, food-processing, electronics, pharmaceuticals, clothes.

Automotive industry (with Fiat Chrysler Automobiles as a forebearer) is dominated by cluster located in Kragujevac and its vicinity, and contributes to export with about $2 billion.

[62] Serbia's electronics industry had its peak in the 1980s and the industry today is only a third of what it was back then, but has witnessed a something of revival in last decade with investments of companies such as Siemens (wind turbines) in Subotica, Panasonic (lighting devices) in Svilajnac, and Gorenje (electrical home appliances) in Valjevo.

[89] The pharmaceutical industry in Serbia comprises a dozen manufacturers of generic drugs, of which Hemofarm in Vršac and Galenika in Belgrade, account for 80% of production volume.

[90] Serbia's mining industry is comparatively strong: Serbia is the 18th largest producer of coal (7th in the Europe) extracted from large deposits in Kolubara and Kostolac basins; it is also world's 23rd largest (3rd in Europe) producer of copper which is extracted by Zijin Bor Copper, a large copper mining company, acquired by Chinese Zijin Mining in 2018; significant gold extraction is developed around Majdanpek.

[94] With 6,924 companies in the IT sector (2013 data[update]), Belgrade is one of the information technology centers in this part of Europe, with strong growth.

[96] Many world IT companies choose Belgrade as regional or European center such as Asus,[97] Intel,[98] Dell,[99] Huawei, NCR,[100] Ubisoft[101] etc.

What brought companies like Microsoft in the first place was a large pool of talented engineers and mathematicians.

Other touristic products that Serbia offer are natural wonders like Đavolja varoš, Christian pilgrimage to the many Orthodox monasteries across the country and the river cruising along the Danube.

[110] Serbia has a strategic transportation location since the country's backbone, Morava Valley, represents by far the easiest route of land travel from continental Europe to Asia Minor and the Near East.

[65] The major rail hub is Belgrade (and to a lesser degree Niš), while the most important railroads include: Belgrade–Bar (Montenegro), Belgrade–Šid–Zagreb (Croatia)/Belgrade–Niš–Sofia (Bulgaria) (part of Pan-European Corridor X), Belgrade–Subotica–Budapest (Hungary) and Niš–Thessaloniki (Greece).

Although still a major mode of freight transportation, railroads face increasing problems with the maintenance of the infrastructure and lowering speeds.

The list includes ten largest Serbian companies by revenue in 2020 (revenue and employees figures without subsidiaries):[134] The list includes ten largest Serbian companies by net income in 2018 (net income and employees figures without subsidiaries):[135]