Page 52 - bne IntelliNews Southeastern Europe Outlook 2025

trade balance.
According to the IMF, Kosovo's current account deficit is projected to widen to 10% of GDP in 2024, up from 7.7% of GDP in 2023, before narrowing to 9.1% of GDP in 2025.
3.6 External Environment – Moldova
Moldova posted a $2.16bn current account deficit in the 12 months to June 2024 after a wider than usual gap in Q2. The ratio of the CA deficit to GDP widened to 12.9% for the 12 months ending June 2024 from 10.9% one month earlier. Smaller than the record 17.3% level reached in Q3 2022 amid high energy prices and accumulation of natural gas reserves, the CA deficit ratio remains very wide in absolute terms.
The $5bn net import of goods in the 12 months to June 2024 was offset to a very small extent by the feeble $254mn (out of which less than $10mn was new equity) while the net wage remittances (including transfers to households) were nearly six times wider: nearly $1.5bn. Despite the robust net wage remittances (down from over $1.6bn in 12 months to June 2023), the CA deficit remained wide ($2.16bn) and its financing in the absence of significant FDI marks a pretty outstanding performance.
Net acquisition of financial assets (negative, meaning sale of financial assets such as debt-like papers) by the non-financial corporate sector financed $1.9bn of the CA gap for the 12-month period. Over the past six years, this source of financing reached an impressive $7.3bn.
However, the country’s net international investment position improved by $738mn over the 12-month period ending June 2024 to minus (net creditor position) $5.6bn (roughly one third of country’s GDP) and the reserve assets increased by $385mn to $5.3bn.
The gross external debt has slightly decreased by $229mn to $9.74bn at the end of June 2024, or 58.1% of GDP, down from 65.3% one year
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