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After 15 years of embargoes and 3 months of indiscriminate bombing (primarily targeting the country's manufacturing plants), it's a miracle that the GDP stands at $2,800. It's closer to $4,000 - but that's not the point. We won't let the facts get in the way.

Serbia is being prevented from properly developing its economy. Don't tell me that Slovenia with no conceivable profitable resources can have a GDP of $20,000 whilst Serbia, abundant in all kinds of natural resources and industry, with an educated, English-speaking population very much in touch with the world they live in, has a GDP 5-7 times smaller than Slovenia's. BS!

I don't put much stock into the official rankings anyway, because it is obvious that Bosnia -- with no economy to speak of -- can't have a greater GDP than Serbia. Yet, miraculously it does.

We won't let the facts get in the way.

Like that's ever been an issue here on FR's Balkan threads.

The only thing preventing Serbia from developing its economy is the Serbs - by choosing to cling to a discredited socialist/nationalist legacy, they're getting exactly what they're asking for: poverty and international isolation. Slovenia has used the 15 years since independence to get their economy together, and the results are inescapable to the objective observer.

Slovenia, btw, has an economy "only" ~1/3rd larger than Serbia's, due to there being 5 times as many folks in Serbia.

But hey, it's all BS because it's inconvenient, right?