The country as a whole has been impoverished as a result of sanctions, but those who have managed to hang on to hard currency savings are at an advantage. Since the imposition of sanctions, real incomes have fallen to a tenth of what they were in 1990. Yet, food prices in Belgrade are higher than in much of Western Europe. Many people were financially destroyed by the loss of their dinar savings in the bank collapses of 1992. Those who are presently amassing wealth are largely doing so by exploiting the chaos of war through the black market. One of the few areas of business expansion in recent years has been in exploiting markets for goods which were previously imported. The few rich buy sanctions-busting goods illegally imported from Western Europe.
