Economic situation to bear major consequences from current political situation

Business community representatives, economic experts express concern that the economic situation will carry Greater Effects from the current political situation.

According to them, this in the first place will negatively affect the interest and arrival of foreign investors to Kosovo.

The chairman of the Kosovo Economic Ode, Safet Gerjaliu, says such a situation was also in 2014, following general elections, where the political stalemate prevented the formation of the country's institutions for about six months.

And that resulted in a sharp decline in external investment.

It's almost the same scenario in 2014. Yes, what characterizes this period of time from 2014 to 2017, there have been many sad images from Kosovo, tear gas, whether from the Parliament, and all these have taken place through media spaces that have directly reduced investors to invest in Kosovo”, Gerjaliu says of Radio Free Europe.

According to official data in 2014, foreign direct investments in Kosovo had dropped to 151m euros, the lowest value in the last decade.

Even the professor at the University of Pristina, Medi Bektashi, says institutional blockade will affect non-interest or even the removal of foreign investors from Kosovo, as, he says, the key condition for the arrival of international investors to Kosovo is political stability.

Bektash, for Radio Free Europe, says current political crisis could turn into Economic crisis.

“The non-creating of institutions separately carries a very high financial value for impasse in economic development, but also the departure of many foreign investors from Kosovo”.
The government's “Funding should be as fast as possible, I don't want to get involved on what basis, but foreign investors and international financial institutions are interested in having a government assigned”, Bektas considers.

Safet Gerjaliu, meanwhile, says countries in the region have created a favourable climate for Foreign investors.

I believe we should learn from countries in the region. Increased foreign investment is being seen in Albania, Montenegro, Macedonia, especially in Serbia. So we need to learn with these experiences, that we really do more for foreign investors, because one of the key indicators for economic development and stability is unequivocally foreign investment indicator, whether directly or indirectly,”, says Gerjaliu.
Recent Kosovo Central Bank data shows that by May of this year, foreign investments have reached 103.7m euros, while in the same period last year these investments have been 90.3m euros.

Financial losses from procrastination in the June 11th election have already begun to be counted. Kosovo lost 15m euros in loans from International Monetary Fund and more than 50m euros in funds from the European Union.