Rafuna: Economic growth of 3.5 % insufficient, does not bring growth or reduced unemployment

The chairman of the Kosovo Chamber of Economics, Lulzim Rafuna, says the single economic growth envisioned by the World Bank this year is insufficient.

In a discussion on Online Economics, Rafuna said that growth of 3 to 3.5 percent does not result in growth or reduction in unemployment.

The head of Oda, who earlier exercised and the duty of Finance Minister, says Kurti Government measures have been slim to deal with crisis and inflation.

According to him, the Government should focus on increasing capital investments, raising salaries in the public sector that should be equal to the value of inflation, as well as supporting the private sector.

Rafuna says the year 2022 was more stable after the post-independent opening, which brought and increased supply and market demand. But World Bank projections for 2023 are the worst.

The economic growth will be 3 to 3.5 percent. This growth is not enough. Single growth does not lead to growth or reduction in unemployment”.

Rafuna points out that to be observed an increase in social welfare, growth would have to be two - way.

He has demanded that businesses be assisted in various forms so that this crisis can be overcome more easily. It suggests other measures.

The first “must be paid much importance to capital investments, to be more aggressive, in a positive sense, that the projects he has planned with the budget law should be implemented as short as possible without making any legal violations. It had also been important to combat inflation to have a public sector salary increase, because it would create a security of every employee”.

“We see that last year there has been a decrease in the amount of goods, so a decrease in consumption due to inflation. The value of money in 2021 for a family basket, is not the same as 2022, said Rafuna.

Salaries, according to him, should be raised to proportion at the value of inflation.

The Law of the Salaries, we saw the complaints. The value of the cofficient has in some cases caused a decrease, some of the public servants had a slight rise, but because of the complaints we have seen, most are not satisfied and that increase that has been made is not in proportion to the level of inflation”.

The minimum wage rate must be in the value of inflation, this has been our request to stimulate consumption”, the OEK chairman points out. / EO