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The global financial crisis exposed the structural weaknesses in Serbia’s economic growth model and prompted the need for fiscal consolidation and an acceleration of the unfinished transition to a market economy. The rapid growth experienced by Serbia during 2001–08 was driven mainly by domestic consumption and led to significant internal and external imbalances that proved to be unsustainable.
Following the elections of March 2014 and early elections of April 2016, a strong majority government was formed, giving Serbia a new opportunity to overcome the past fragmentation and build momentum for reform. The new Government is committed to focusing on transforming the state administration, public finances, and the economy, along with pursuing the European Union (EU) accession process.
The economic program for 2015–18 focuses on ensuring economic and financial stability, halting further debt accumulation, and creating an environment for economic recovery and growth to foster employment and raise living standards.
These goals will be achieved primarily through fiscal consolidation measures and an acceleration of structural reforms to remove existing bottlenecks to economic growth, including reform of state-owned enterprises (SOEs), creating the foundation for faster growth and private sector–led job creation over the medium term.

Following the Slavic migrations to the Balkans from the 6th century onwards, Serbs established several states in the early middle Ages. The Serbian Kingdom obtained recognition by Rome and the Byzantine Empire in 1217; it reached its peak in 1346 as a relatively short-lived Serbian Empire. By the mid-16th century, the entire modern-day Serbia was annexed by the Ottomans, at times interrupted by the Habsburg Empire, which started expanding towards Central Serbia since the end of the 17th century, while maintaining foothold in modern-day Vojvodina. In the early 19th century, the Serbian Revolution established the nation-state as the region's first constitutional monarchy, which subsequently expanded its territory. Following disastrous casualties in World War I, and the subsequent unification of the Habsburg crownland of Vojvodina with Serbia, the country co-founded Yugoslavia with other South Slavic peoples, which would exist in various political formations until the Yugoslav Wars of the 1990s. As a result, Serbia formed a union with Montenegro in 1992, which broke apart in 2006, when Serbia again became an independent country. In 2008 the parliament of Kosovo, Serbia's southern province with an Albanian ethnic majority, declared independence, with mixed responses from the international community.

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The dinar, is the currency of Serbia. The earliest use of the dinar dates back to 1214. The first mention of a "Serbian dinar" dates back to the reign of Stefan Nemanji? in 1214. Until the fall of Despot Stjepan Tomaševi? in 1459, most of the Serbian rulers minted silver dinar coins. The first Serbian dinars, like many other south-European coins, replicated Venetian Grosso, including characters in Latin (the word 'Dux' replaced with the word 'Rex'). For many years it was one of the main export articles of medieval Serbia, considering the relative abundance of silver coming from Serbian mines. Venetians were weary of this, and Dante Alighieri went so far as to put the Serbian king of his time, Stephen Uroš II Milutin of Serbia, in Hell as forgerer (along with his Portuguese and Norwegian counterparts).

In 1868, bronze coins were introduced in denominations of 1, 5 and 10 paras. The obverses featured the portrait of Prince Mihailo Obrenovi? III. Silver coins were introduced in 1875, in denominations of 50 paras, 1 and 2 dinars, followed by 5 dinars in 1879. The first gold coins were also issued in 1879, for 20 dinars, with 10 dinars introduced in 1882. The gold coins issued for the coronation of Milan I coronation in 1882 were popularly called milandor (French Milan d'Or). In 1883, cupro-nickel 5, 10 and 20 para coins were introduced, followed by bronze 2 paras coins in 1904. In 1876, state notes were introduced in denominations of 1, 5, 10, 50 and 100 dinars.

These were followed by notes of the Chartered National Bank from 1884, with notes for 10 dinars backed by silver and gold notes for 50 and 100 dinars. Gold notes for 20 dinars and silver notes for 100 dinars were introduced in 1905. During World War I, silver notes for 50 and 5 dinars were introduced in 1914 and 1916, respectively. In 1915, stamps were authorized for circulation as currency in denominations of 5, 10, 15, 20, 25, 30 and 50 paras. In May 1941, the Serbian National Bank introduced notes for 10, 20, 50, 100, 500 and 1000 dinars.

The 100 and 1000 dinar notes were overprints, whilst the 10 dinar design was taken from an earlier Yugoslav note. Other notes were introduced in 1942 and 1943 without any new denominations being introduced. Coins currently in circulation are 1, 2, 5, 10 and 20 dinar coins. All coins feature identical inscriptions in Serbian, using the Cyrillic and Latin scripts. The 10 and 20 dinar coins are uncommon in circulation, as banknotes of the same value are used instead. In 2003, banknotes of the (re-established) National Bank of Serbia were introduced in denominations of 100, 1000 and 5000 dinars. These were followed by 500 dinars in 2004, 50 dinars in 2005, 10 and 20 dinars in 2006 and 2000 dinars in 2011.