Kosovo poorest in the region

The magazine “Global Finance”, which offers economic reports, lists or even financial news, has published the rankings of countries of the world from the richest to the poorest in 2022. The figures refer to the International Monetary Fund (FMN) in the publication “World Economic Respect, April 2022<84>.

According to these data, for 2022 Kosovo turns out to be the poorest state in the region, ranking 105th in the world with $13.964 per capita income.

Albania ranks 90th among 192 countries, totaled in analysis with GDP per capita at $1.383.

Measurement of rich and poor countries referred to GDP per capita based on the equality of purchasing power.

The gross domestic product is converted into international dollars using purchasing power equality rates.

This measure is done because if we were to consider just the gross domestic product of a country over a year, then we would have to conclude that the richest nations are the ones with the highest GDP like the United States, China, Japan or Germany. Thus, to have more accurate data on the wealthier and poorest countries, according to Global Finance, it is preferable that countries be either legalist or economically equal.

To assess how rich a country's citizens are, it is necessary to understand how much they can buy. So when we compare GDP per capita among countries, GDP needs to be adjusted for equality of purchasing power, which helps us to take into account inflation rates and the price of goods and services in any given country.

According to this methodology, the world's richest country is Luxembourg with GDP per capita based on the equality of purchasing power to $140,694. The second richest country is Singapore, followed by Ireland and Qatar, the Monitor newspaper reports.

At the top of the list are countries such as Switzerland United Arab Emirates, Norway and the United States, with $76,027 per capita. But what are the world's poorest countries? Their listing according to GDP per capita based on the equality of power purchased shows that at the end of the list are places like Burundi, South Sudan, Somalia, Nigeria, the Republic of Congo, and other African countries.

In the region, according to the rankings, Kosovo and Albania are the poorest in the region, ranking 105 and 90, respectively. Montenegro leads in the region as the richest country with the highest GDP per capita, given the equality of purchasing power. It's ranked 69th in the world with $24,878.

Next comes Serbia and North Macedonia, ranked 72th and 78th, respectively. Bosnia and Herzegovina in this ranking stands 88th with $17,471 per capita.

According to the Statistics Agency (ASK), unemployment in Kosovo is above 25 percent.

KSF's latest data on the labour market show that out of over one million working-age citizens in Kosovo, over 350,000 are employed, while over 120 thousand are unemployed.

According to the AKS, about 750 thousand citizens are economically inactive, which means they are not employed, nor registered as unemployed, nor are they looking for jobs.

Kosovo, like many countries of the world, is facing growth in inflation, which has started with the COVID-19 pandemic and has taken off after the outbreak of war in Ukraine.

According to the Kosovo Statistics Agency, the inflation rate last month has increased by 14 per cent compared to the same period last year.