IMF: Economic growth for 2022 in Kosovo, smaller in the last 10 years

Kosovo's economic growth is expected to reach 3.9 per cent next year and 3.5 per cent in 2027, the IMF said in the April edition of the World Economic Outlook “report, published on Tuesday.

Last year, according to this report, Kosovo's economic output has increased by 9.5 per cent, according to the report.

Average consumer inflation in Kosovo is expected to amount to 9.5 per cent in 2022 from 3.3 per cent last year, before falling to 3.3 per cent in 2023, the IMF said.

Kosovo's current trade deficit, which was 9.1 per cent as GDP in 2021, is projected to drop to 8.9 per cent in 2022 before reducing even more to 7 per cent in 2023.

The IMF expects the GDP of the developing Europe area, including Romania, Turkey, Bulgaria, Serbia, Croatia, Albania, Bosnia and Herzegovina, Moldova, Montenegro and northern Macedonia, to be reduced by 2.9 percent in 2022 before turning a 1.3 percent increase in 2023.

The war in Ukraine has caused a costly humanitarian crisis, which requires peaceful solutions. At the same time, economic damage from the conflict will contribute to a considerable slowdown in global growth in 2022 and increased inflation. Food and oil prices have risen rapidly, mostly hitting vulnerable populations in low-income states”, the IMF stressed.

For the last time that the IMF had estimated that Kosovo had the slightest economic growth was ten years ago, in 2012, a 1.7 percent.