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Europe > Montenegro

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Cover Selected Issues Papers
Surviving Low Interest Rates Central Banks in Kosovo and Other Western Balkan Countries: Republic of Kosovo
Mr. Si Guo
Interest income from foreign reserves is one of the main revenue sources for most emerging market central banks. For central banks in the Western Balkan region, the low global interest rates during 2008–2021 negatively affected their revenues, and the impact was more pronounced for central banks in Kosovo, Montenegro, and Bosnia and Herzegovina because they cannot use seigniorage to finance their operations. This paper explores how these central banks coped with the long period of low-interest rates. The main finding is that the decline in interest income from foreign reserves was partially compensated by higher fees, commissions, and other regulatory revenues.
Keywords:
Central bank; Low interest rates; Kosovo; Montenegro; Bosinia; Herzegovina; interest income; central banks in Kosovo; emerging market central banks; rising interest rates; personnel cost-to-GDP ratio; Income; International reserves; Central bank rates; Government securities; Exchange rate arrangements; Global
Cover IMF Working Papers
Inflation Dynamics in the Western Balkans
Gohar Minasyan
,
Ezgi O. Ozturk
,
Magali Pinat
,
Mengxue Wang
, and
Zeju Zhu
After trailing Euro Area inflation closely in the recent past, inflation in the Western Balkans has accelerated faster since early 2022 on the back of the shocks to global commodity prices, strong recovery from the pandemic, and lingering supply bottlenecks. This paper employs two complementary empirical approaches of an augmented Phillips curve and structural VAR, adapting them to the data availability and country specificities of the Western Balkans, to analyze the inflation dynamics in the region. It finds that international food prices affect not only headline but also core inflation as well as inflation expectations. Further, inflation in the Western Balkans is not just determined by foreign shocks, and domestic factors, aggregate demand shocks in particular, have a significant impact on inflation. These findings imply a possible role for policies to temporarily limit an immediate and complete pass-through of international to domestic food prices while also stressing the importance of an appropriate domestic macroeconomic policy mix to keep inflation expectations anchored and safeguard credibility in the face of high inflation persistence.
Keywords:
Inflation; Western Balkans; international food price shocks; commodity price shocks; Phillips curve; panel data; structural VAR; inflation expectation; inflation dynamics; inflations determinant; inflation development; inflation in the Western Balkans; Food prices; Energy prices; Nominal effective exchange rate; Global; Europe
Cover IMF Staff Country Reports
Republic of Kosovo: Selected Issues
International Monetary Fund. European Dept.
This Selected Issues paper focuses on challenges and opportunities in Kosovo’s electricity sector. Energy market pressures in Europe are likely to continue throughout 2023. Higher energy prices represent a heavy blow for Kosovo’s current account. The tariff-setting framework is broadly sound, but the increase in European electricity prices has led to challenges. Higher European electricity prices have stressed the sector’s flows, creating liquidity choke points. Higher European electricity prices and lower domestic electricity supply may result is significant stress for Kosovo’s energy sector and budget. In the short term, more efficient use of electricity should reduce demand and contribute to balance the system in 2023. In the medium term, boosting energy efficiency and diversification away from lignite is priority. To that end, creating a fund for the renewal and expansion of domestic electricity generation capacity in green technologies could be explored. Starting to explore carbon pricing would strengthen price signals and result in more efficient demand and less carbon intensity.
Keywords:
tax revenue growth; policy implication; Electricity supply chain; central banks in Kosovo; electricity sector; Electricity; Income; Natural gas sector; Tax administration core functions; Europe; Global
Cover IMF Working Papers
Labor Taxation in the Western Balkan: Looking Back and Forward
Mr. Alain Jousten
,
Mario Mansour
,
Irena Jankulov Suljagic
, and
Charles Vellutini
This paper examines how labor taxation (personal income taxes and social security contributions) in the Western Balkan contributes to labor market outcomes such as high informality and a significant gender gap in participation rates. We find that limited progressivity combined with high tax wedge on low incomes poses a major twin equity-efficiency challenge in the region, resulting in low redistributive capacity and inadequate incentives to enter the job market. Policy implications are discussed with a view to alleviating the excessively high tax wedges on low incomes, while improving progressivity of income taxation.
Keywords:
Western Balkan; labor taxation; labor tax wedge; personal income tax; corporate income tax; social security contributions; income taxation; SSC reduction; employer SSCs; Labor taxes; Tax wedge; Wages; Labor markets; Europe
Cover IMF Staff Country Reports
Republic of North Macedonia: Selected Issues
International Monetary Fund. European Dept.
Selected Issues
Keywords:
growth acceleration plan; investment trend; deviation from baseline; IMF government finance statistics database; investment plan; Public investment spending; Value-added tax; Infrastructure; Global
Cover Regional Economic Outlook, October 2020, Europe
Regional Economic Outlook, October 2020, Europe
Whatever It Takes: Europe’s Response to COVID-19
International Monetary Fund. European Dept.

Abstract

The COVID-19 pandemic has caused dramatic loss of human life and major damage to the European economy, but thanks to an exceptionally strong policy response, potentially devastating outcomes have been avoided.

Keywords:
lockdowns; pandemic; corporate liquidity; recovery; reopening; economic outlook; forecasting; REO; policy support; infection curve; job retention program; Europe transform; financial market disruption; pandemic economy; solvency risks in Europe; time trend; reopening indices; infection incidence; reinfection risk; infection rate; credit access; containment policy; COVID-19; Liquidity; Solvency; Infrastructure; Europe; Global
Cover IMF Staff Country Reports
Montenegro: Request for Purchase under the Rapid Financing Instrument; Press Release; Staff Report; and Statement by the Executive Director for Montenegro
International Monetary Fund. European Dept.
The COVID-19 pandemic will hit Montenegro hard, as tourism is a key industry. Fiscal space has eroded in recent years due to large public capital outlays, and the COVID-19 crisis is creating new budgetary strains as health spending and other expenditures rise, while the economic contraction lowers revenues.
Keywords:
ISCR; CR; financing; emergency financing request; IMF lending tracker; assistance; liquidity withdrawal requirement rate; financing gap; Executive Board discussion; Fiscal stance; Capital spending; Tourism; Global; COVID-19; Financial sector
Cover IMF Staff Country Reports
Montenegro: Technical Assistance Report-Financial Soundness Indicators Mission (November 29 - December 5, 2017)
International Monetary Fund. Statistics Dept.
This Technical Assistance (TA) report focuses the compilation of financial soundness indicators (FSI) for the deposit takers (DTs), which cover 15 commercial banks, using the chart of accounts (COAs) and supervisory series as source data. The regulatory and accounting practices of the DTs are broadly in line with the FSI Guide, which defers to Basel principles and International Accounting Standards. The mission recommended an action plan with the following priority recommendations to support progress in the FSI compilation. The mission highlighted the need to complement the FSI data with the corresponding metadata. Metadata should also contain information on the content and coverage of the FSIs, as well as the accounting conventions and other national guidelines. As the financial performance of commercial banks’ counterpart sectors as well as key markets has direct impact on the soundness of the financial sector, it is recommended to coordinate with regulators of other financial institutions that are not under the Central Bank of Montenegro’s supervision to draw a work program to collect data for compiling FSIs for other financial corporations.
Keywords:
ISCR; CR; FSI Guide; TA mission; FSD; compilation framework; financial system; CBM official; core FSIs; compilers in Montenegro; Financial soundness indicators; Commercial banks; Financial sector; Financial statements; Financial sector stability
Cover IMF Staff Country Reports
Montenegro: Selected Issues
International Monetary Fund. European Dept.
This Selected Issues paper analyzes the long-term growth prospects and the output gap in Montenegro. Historical growth in Montenegro was driven mostly by capital with some contribution from labor, while total factor productivity (TFP) contributed negatively. Going forward, in the baseline growth accounting framework with no reforms, employment will likely have a slightly negative contribution because of demographic dynamics unless both labor force participation and unemployment improve significantly. The highway project will contribute to capital accumulation in the near term, but the contribution from capital accumulation will likely fall despite relatively high investment ratios. Based on historical performance, the contribution from TFP is likely limited and constitutes the main bottleneck for long-term growth prospects in the no-reform baseline.
Keywords:
ISCR; CR; bank; expenditure; minimum wage; fiscal policy; TFP growth; IMF staff estimate; child care; output gap estimate; trend revenue; TFP assumption; expenditure elasticity; bank emergency liquidity assistance; highway spending; Total factor productivity; Output gap; Labor markets; Fiscal stance; Global; Eastern Europe; Southern Europe; Europe
Cover Departmental Papers
Public Infrastructure in the Western Balkans: Opportunities and Challenges
Mr. Ruben V Atoyan
,
Ms. Dora Benedek
,
Ezequiel Cabezon
,
Mr. Giuseppe Cipollone
,
Mr. Jacques A Miniane
,
Ms. Nhu Nguyen
,
Mr. Martin Petri
,
Mr. Jens Reinke
, and
Mr. James Roaf
An assessment of public infrastructure development in the Western Balkans. The paper quantifies the large gaps across various sectors/dimensions, evaluates current infrastructure plans, and discusses funding options available to countries in the region. The paper also identifies important bottlenecks for increased infrastructure investment. Finally, the paper quantifies potential growth benefits from addressing infrastructure gaps, concluding that boosting the quantity and quality of infrastructure is vital for raising economic growth and accelerating income convergence with the EU. The paper concludes with country-specific policy recommendations.
Keywords:
DPPP; DP; capital stock; crowding in; private sector; EU country; IMF staff calculation; infrastructure investment; single market; financial support; management framework; EU accession prospect; investment plan; country's investment attractiveness; investment goods; IFI financing; accession prospect; Infrastructure; Public investment and public-private partnerships (PPP); Public investment spending; Capital spending; Europe; Central and Eastern Europe; Global; Baltics; EU integration process