Kosovo continues import of goods with countries that have not recognised Kosovo

The latest data released by the Kosovo Statistics Agency speaks of a slight decrease in imports value from the five countries that have not yet recognised Kosovo.

Business representatives estimate that despite the challenges facing local businesses, this also damages them in their development.

In December 2021-December 2022, Kosovo has imported high value of products coming from the five countries that have not recognised Kosovo. The latest data released by the Kosovo Statistics Agency speaks that Kosovo mostly imports from Greece, where, in December 2022, Greek import in Kosovo marked over 3.9m euros, followed by Spain at 0.9m euros, Romania at 0.8m euros and Slovakia with 0.4.

Meanwhile, in an electronic response to Radio Kosovo, the Kosovo Central Bank has confirmed that only in January of this year, import from the five countries that have not recognised Kosovo marks over 26m euros.

BEC spokesman Kuqim Ahmeti has said import from Greece is 16.2m euros, Romania 3.5m euros, Spain 3.1m euros, Slovakia 1.15m euros and Cyprus 0.29m euros.

Despite political problems, Kosovo continues to export even further, and local businesses are worse, Kosovo Business Alliance Chairman Agim Sahin tells Radio Kosovo.

Kosovo continues to import products from various countries regardless of whether we have good economic, political and diplomatic reports. We don't view these as priorities, but we have a priority where we find easier access to imports, and that's what's happening with the five countries that Kosovo doesn't know, but those countries' products are present in Kosovo. I take example in Serbia that we have over 432m euros in trade exchange in the past year, where it turns out we as consumers don't have nationalist burdens, much less businesses. We continue to treat all products from all countries whether they know us or not, but those states don't treat us the same way, and here we should also see reciprocity measures against each state, whether it's in the EU or not, he said.

Otherwise, import of goods from all EU countries, according to the latest data from the Kosovo Statistics Agency, has scored a 4.6 per cent increase.