Next year Kosovo budget will be reduced to 200m euros

According to Deputy Finance Minister Agim Krasniqi, the important thing is that within government partners there is consensus on adopting this bill.

“We within the Government are not able to make major changes in the budget to fulfil legal obligations and this logic, it should be understood in the Parliament as well. Economics cannot produce numbers at will. The economy is and the share of revenues depends on the level of economic development, and we are knowing what situation the private sector is”, Krasniqi has said.

Budgetary projections for 2021 do not envision any other economic closure because of the David-19 pandemic, and that estimates are that economic growth will be 4 percent.

But the International Monetary Fund in the latest report says uncertain development of pandemic should be taken into account, and that the budget for 2021 should include a total reserve aloation for the buffer measures that could be decided in the first half of next year, if necessary.

However, Krasniqi has said that there is a continuation of the programme for recovery in the drafts.

We will have 30m euros of funding for health reasons, and the rest, depending on economic circumstances and needs, we will see which measures from economic recovery we will finance. It is a fund of some 150-160 million, which will be for the health programme”, Krasniqi has declared.

Asked whether it would be in the budget for 2021 of the Dukagjini highway project, Krasniqi has said that projects by the Ministry of the Line have not yet been submitted and that it is her responsibility to see which project has priority. But, he says he has been advised that the priority has existing projects.

The cause of pandemic, the economic downturn in Kosovo is 6.5 percent. Meanwhile, the World Bank has seen an economic contraction of 8.8 percent. But for next year The IMF envisions a return of the economy from 4.5 to 6 per cent.