An analysis of key indicators of rural development in Serbia: A comparison with EU countries

* University of Novi Sad, Faculty of Economics in Subotica, E-mail: zekics@ef.uns.ac.rs ** University of Novi Sad, Faculty of Economics in Subotica, E-mail: zana.kleut@ef.uns.ac.rs University of Novi Sad, Faculty of Economics in Subotica, E-mail: bojan.matkovski@ef.uns.ac.rs JEL CLASSIFICATION: R11, R12, C38, P25 ABSTRACT: In accordance with the strategic aim of Serbia regarding European Union accession, harmonization with European Union rural development policy is an important issue for the creators of rural policy. Accordingly, the basic aim of this paper is to analyse the rural development level of Serbia in comparison to European Union countries, using multivariate statistical analysis. Factor analysis and cluster analysis are applied to extract three factors of rural development: the relative economic significance of rural areas, the general level of economic and agricultural development, and rural development. The results clearly show that Serbia has a lower level of rural development than European Union countries. Therefore defining adequate actions and mechanisms to achieve the policy aims of Serbian rural development is imperative.