Albanian exports to Kosovo go up following tax hike on Serbia

The amount of Albanian exports going to Kosovo has recently registered a significant increase. This seems to be a direct effect of the decision by authorities in Kosovo to introduce a 100% tax hike on Serbian imports. This is also confirmed by the office for statistics, INSTAT. According to this office, exports to Kosovo have seen the biggest increase this year. INSTAT also reports that in March, Albanian exports to Kosovo grew by 86.8%. Meanwhile, for the first months of the year, this increase was 43.7%.

Both of these increases are significant as opposed to the level of exports last year. This clearly indicates that the tax that Kosovo introduced on Serbian goods had a positive indirect effect on trade between Kosovo and Albania. The volume of trade between the two countries is now higher than the volume of trade between Albania and its traditional trading partner, North Macedonia. According to INSTAT, in March this year, the amount of Albanian exports heading to North Macedonia accounted for 50% of the amount heading to Kosovo.

“In March, Albanian exports to Kosovo grew by 86.8% as opposed to the same period a year ago, while exports to North Macedonia grew by 45.6%”, experts confirm.

These figures clearly indicate that the fact that the tax introduced in November by authorities in Pristina had a positive effect in the volume of trade between Albania and Kosovo.

Is Kosovo “snatching” Albanian goods which were sold to Germany and Greece?!

Albanian goods being exported to Kosovo today, up until a while ago used to go somewhere else. What countries could these be? Probably those countries which have registered the biggest decline of the amount of Albanian goods they import. According to the country’s office for statistics, the two countries which seem to have registered this sort of decline are Germany and Greece.

China no longer a “favourite destination” for Albanian goods

China no longer seems to be a “favourite destination” for Albanian goods. Why should Albanian businesses pay enormous transport costs when they can easily send their products to Kosovo? Trade with China seems to be shrinking this year as Albanian exports to this country have seen a sharp decline of 43.6%.