Rafuna: Economic growth of up to 4% tensions in the north are scaring investors

The chairman of the Kosovo Chamber of Economics (OEK), Lulzim Rafuna, has said that if the current economic situation continues to be the same by the end of this year, economic growth is expected to be up to 4 per cent.

He has added that open issues with Serbia and raising tensions in northern Kosovo influence foreign investors to hesitate to invest in Kosovo.

Rafuna said there cannot be an economic crisis as a cause of the recent event in the country's north, but it can be linked to many other challenges, he has also thanked the Kosovo Police for successfully managing the terrorist attack in the north.

The largest space, of course, has occupied the recent events that took place in northern Kosovo. Fortunately that terrorist attack was managed in the best possible way. Thanks to the Kosovo Police, the situation has been managed, unfortunately we had a loss of life, but as family members of the deceased have expressed themselves, for falling home is like re-invincing” again, he said.

Rafuna said that raising tensions all the time in the country's north is puzzled and caused them to hesitate to invest in Kosovo, according to him, any investment investors in Kosovo require political and legal security.

He said, however, that this situation would not leave large traces, as according to him, import, export, export of services are continuing and not stopping.

The open question with Serbia has all stressed that the open issue with Serbia is an obstacle, because the raising of tensions all the time in the north leaves a poor space or middle for foreign investors who would hesitate to come. Any investor who comes with invested in Kosovo demands political, judicial security. In this case, the raising of tensions in the country's north shut down roads, the attack on KFOR soldiers, but now the latest event that has happened undoubtedly a bit of a bit of pressure on foreign investors. But in general there will not be a very large trace because import and export will continue, the export of services will continue there is no halt, and we have no problem with selling any other problems except Serbia”, he said.

He said the economic crisis, taking the last event that took place in the northern part, will not, according to him, are the other challenges the economy is facing.

According to him, for businesses now it is challenging to work, safety of electricity, and the risk of rising its price during the winter.

The OEK chairman said that based on international financial institutions, economic growth for this year will range from 3.5 maximum to 4 per cent.

There will be no other challenges we would have if this last event hadn't happened, except for the open issue that we have. Because the challenge for business is now a lack of labor force, the challenge now is that we are entering the winter period, and we still don't have a guarantee that we're going to have electricity if we have electricity or the price increase we had last year. Then there's the issue of inflation, inflation we're not creating here, but we're importing it, and if the price of gas increases and the price of electricity in Europe it's directly going to have an impact on us at”.

“As far as economic growth is concerned we deal with international financial institutions ranging from 3.5, 3.7, the maximum that could reach 4 if the situation goes as we are today in the best option”, he told EO.