Minister Bislimi: Kosovo economy to lose up to 500 million cause of Coronavirus

Bislimi says the biggest problem for the government will be receiving support from parliament in view of the political crisis the country has entered since the motion for the government's dismissal. According to the World Bank and the Kosovo International Monetary Fund, there will be 200m euros less this year as a result of the pandemic.

Radio Free Europe: Mr. Bislimia, what is the economic damage caused by the pandemic COVID-19?

Faithful Bislimi: Economic damage as a whole is not known yet, as the pandemic is not finished. But what is known so far is that approximately on a daily basis Kosovo's pandemic has cost the state about 6m euros.

If these multiply by 50 days so far that we've had pandemics, it turns out we've completely lost about 300m euros in production. Add to it what could be lost during May, until the economy fully returns to full capacity, it could generally lose 450m euros. If we're going through normal rhythm the rest of the year.

Radio Free Europe: How high is this figure for Kosovo's budget, when we consider that the budget amounts to over 2.3 billion euros?

Faithful Bislimi: Kosovo's budget is not largely affected by the damages in the economy because 2/3 of the budget is raised between international trade. International trade has no longer stalled the same pace as the local economy. We so far, in 50 days we have a 32m-euro discount in the report last year from customs revenues that means it's the smallest size.

Meanwhile, in domestic taxes or inflows, there is no known reason that we have extended payment of certain obligations by the end of June. So it's early to know how much impact I had on the inside tax revenues.

Radio Free Europe: Businesses say they have suffered major losses from measures taken to prevent pandemics. How much is enough fiscal emergency package and do you have tools for implementation?

Faithful Bislimi: The package is emergency, so it cannot be completed, and it is not aimed at meeting economic damage. Emergency package only guarantees the easy way through. But we didn't even claim to cover up all our losses, nor can we. Loss must be divided into all acts of economy.

While, most of the assistance goes to the business community is achieved through the package of economic recovery with the design of which will begin this week. But this package cannot be implemented before completely the government's restrictive measures are passed, because businesses at this stage do not even try to take credit.

Now, do we have enough tools, of course it would be easier, like the Kosovo Parliament had come to our aid and not become the country's opposition. But anyway, we are accommodated the entire package within the existing budget and then the budget we review in June or July. The package has begun to apply, some points -- for example, paying social aid, paying pensions -- additional workers who have been endangered have been realised.

Meanwhile, the execution of the package covering the workers has also begun last week, about 150,000 payments have been executed, the rest have been executed Monday, and another issue Tuesday.

There are some problems, because some businesses have been found to have applied, but they are not supposed to be part of the package, if they are public companies, whether they are companies that have operated successfully during this phase.

For example, there are retail companies, a total of 1100 workers, and it put all workers on the list, even though we know that most of this business has operated smoothly.

Read the full interview at REL