BEC: Kosovo's economy is expected to grow by 3.9 per cent during 2024

The Kosovo Central Bank has announced their projection regarding the country's economic growth. According to the CEC projections, Kosovo's economy is expected to grow by 3.9 per cent.

The Central Bank of the Republic of Kosovo reports that projections suggest that Kosovo's economy is expected to grow faster during 2017, supported by increased real income available, thanks to inflation cuts and increased funding resources.

The economy is expected to grow by 3.9 percent during 2024. This increase is expected to be supported by increased consumption, investment and export of goods and services. Meanwhile, import of goods and services is expected to have a negative impact on BPV growth”, the BQK report says, for the quarter economy assessment.

The CEC reports that according to the KSF preliminary estimates, Kosovo's economy has seen 5.6 per cent growth in TM1 2024.

“Acceleration of economic growth against the same period last year is largely linked to the dynamics of local demand, while net exports negatively affected economic activity as a result of increased domestic demand associated with import growth, visa liberalisation that has affected the import of travel services, price dynamics in international markets, and weakened demand in Eurozone”.

Economic growth at TM1 2024 is largely supported by consumption and investment, which contributed 9.1 percentage points, respectively. On the other hand, net exports had a negative impact on real BPV growth with

In TM1 2024, consumption has increased by 8.9 percent, a much higher growth compared to the same quarter of last year. Investments marked growth of 3.1 percent, mainly because of increased public investment and lending.

As for foreign trade, net exports deepened the trade deficit by 12.7 percent. The increase in the trade deficit was the result of an increase in imports of goods and services by 9.1 percent (the export of goods marked an increase of 6.9 percent, while the import of services marked increases of 30.8 percent), as well as the loss of export of goods for 1.9 percent, while export of services marked growth of 14.0 percent<0).

The Central Bank has indicated that commercial banks in Kosovo continue to increase their profits year after year. This financial sector has managed to gain high profits during the January-June 2024 period.

According to the recent Kosovo Central Bank report(BQK), for six months this year from bank loans and other services to citizens and businesses, commercial banks have had clean profits of 90.9m euros or 8.2m euros more than in the same period last year.

In the first six months, 2023 bank profit has been 82.6m euros. In 2022 the profits of banks were 65m euros.