Bosnia heads region, Kosovo, Albania remain with lower budgetary collections

On one side, Bosnia, Serbia and Montenegro result most effectively after they manage to collect in the budget over 40% of Brushe Interior Production, while on the other side Albania, Kosovo and Northern Macedonia result in very low quotas, without even passing the 33% threshold, according to data published on the International Monetary Fund database belonging to 2025.

Bosnia and Herzegovina not only has the highest GDP income rate in Rajon, but also registers the highest annual growth rate in 2025.

Its income rises from 41.3 percent in 2024 to 42.5 percent in 2025, at 1.2 percentage points. This strong fiscal expansion of Bosnia was based on good performance of indirect taxes and VAT collection, which were driven by inflation and sustainable domestic consumption.

Positive change shows that Bosnian authorities have managed to capitalise on economic flows, strengthening their budgetary position in the face of challenges bringing in internal fragmentation.

Serbia also confirms a strong position and a constant increase in its fiscal indicators in the region, climbing from 40.5 percent of GDP in 2024 to 41.0 percent in 2025.

This 0.5 percentage point increase reflects the huge weight this country plays in regional industrial production and its ability to harvest significant revenue from foreign direct investment and the export sector.

The Serbian fiscal system benefits from a wide tax base and a stricter check on the performance of public and private enterprises, which keeps income levels in high quotas comparable to those of developed European countries.

Montenegro represents a specific exception in the region, as it is the only country that marks a drop in revenues as a percentage of GDP at 2025. Data shows that from a high level of 40.7 percent in 2024, the index dropped to 40.3 percent in 2025, contracting by -0.4 percentage points.

This slowdown is not related to weakening the economy, but to the fastest growth of nominal GDP driven by tourism and foreign investment, compared to the pace of tax collections.

Northern Macedonia followed the increase, with its budgetary revenues compared with GDP shifted from 31.8 percent in 2024 to 32.2 percent in 2025.

This positive change of 0.4 percentage points reflects the stability of its tax policies and government efforts to harmonise fiscal legislation with European Union standards. Northern Macedonia has increased efficiency in collecting obligations from large businesses, providing a steady flow of revenue for state crates.

Kosovo also displays an increase trend in its budgetary collections, testifying to an ongoing consolidation of its revenue collection institutions. Out of 29.9 percent of this report in 2024, Kosovo manages to pass the psychological threshold by climbing to 30.4 percent in 2025, which represents an increase of 0.5 percentage points.

This progress is largely dedicated to the stated fight against formal economy, reforms in Customs and the Tax Administration, as well as increased transparency in the declaration of personal income, which is helping to create a larger fiscal space for public investment.

In this regional context, Albania continues to remain at relatively low income collection levels in relation to the size of its economy, ranking among the countries with the lowest performance in the Western Balkans.

According to IMF figures, income as a percentage of GDP for Albania from 28.2 percent in 2024 reached 28.3 percent in 2025, marking an almost insignificant improvement of only 0.1 percentage points.

This minimal growth reflects the chronic challenges facing the country in expanding tax base, the high level of informality in key sectors such as tourism, construction and agriculture.

Although reforms in digitisation of the tax administration and the process of fiscalisation have yielded some results, they have not yet brought about a radical twist that would bring Albania closer to the regional or European averages of capital data collection. /Periscope