The Western Balkans’ Balky Bloc Formation
EU officials, marking the 60th anniversary of the single market and still at odds over issues from Brexit to bank rescue, were at odds again over political and economic direction in the Western Balkans, where investable markets include Serbia, Macedonia and Bosnia and Herzegovina linked on a common securities trading platform. In early March European Council Tusk, after fighting removal maneuvers from his former party rivals in charge in Poland, warned of “destabilization from inside and outside forces.” Germany has led with infrastructure pledges and extra money was dispatched to slow migrant inflows, and Brussels established a unit to counter Russian “disinformation” around conflicts in Macedonia and Montenegro, where Moscow allies may have attempted a coup. Corruption and organized crime remain scourges from the Yugoslavia civil war era, and Serbia’s accession process has been blocked by old enemy Croatia, and several European capitals refuse to recognize Kosovo. A week after Tusk’s remarks enlargement commissioner Hahn exhorted a “single economic development space” for the six states and praised progress on tariff reduction while citing other cross-border trade and investment obstacles. Russia has encouraged Bosnian Serbs to withdraw from the Federation and endorsed the current pro-Putin stance by Belgrade, which is also under an IMF program. The stock market is up marginally on the MSCI frontier index, and GDP growth is forecast at 3 percent as credit recovers at double that pace. Retail and corporate deposits have reached highs as banks write off and sell bad loans cutting the ratio to 17 percent. Local currency reversion is pronounced as the dinar drifts to 125/dollar, and borrowing rates fall to single digits. Renewed access to offshore commercial credit enabled early repayment of previous obligations, and the picture is now brighter than the rest of Southeast Europe where appetite is flat.
Albania issued a sovereign bond during a recent high-yield boom and just completed a Fund arrangement that will be followed with post-program monitoring. Energy projects lifted GDP growth to 6 percent last year and the fiscal deficit shrank to under 2 percent. Inflation was below target at 2 percent and pension, bankruptcy and tax reforms were enacted. However political standoff is due to stall momentum with an opposition party boycott to insist on a provisional technocrat administration before June scheduled elections. The hefty current account gap persists at over 10 percent of output, but FDI and worker remittances offer coverage and increasingly capital goods imports go to building future productive capacity. Bulgaria had a modest MSCI gain as Borrisov’s GERB party, with a centrist pro-Europe stance, looked to form a government again on the region’s best current account performance with a 3 percent of GDP surplus. Tourism has been a bright spot with visitors diverted from Egypt and Turkey and the currency board regime has been unaffected by the euro’s global fluctuations. Romania rose double-digits on the MSCI frontier on a current account deficit of the same magnitude starting to worry investors on a combination of domestic demand overheating and foreign reserve depletion pressures. Lower VAT and pension and wage hikes have eroded a prudent budget reputation reinforced by an IMF backup facility, and the central bank may soon be forced to tighten monetary policy to seal foundation cracks.
