Half of all businesses in Kosovo are failing
Fifty per cent of businesses registered in Kosovo are not operating, which experts say indicates the depth of the crisis afflicting the private sector
(KosovoCompromise Staff) Wednesday, December 17, 2008
Around 45,000 of the 90,000 registered businesses in Kosovo are not operating, which experts warn is a sign that Kosovo's private sector is in crisis.
In the building boom in Kosovo that followed the 1998-1999 conflict, many businessmen invested large sums in big shopping malls, with a view to selling or to leasing the stores.
But nowadays most of those centres are emptying out, as one business folds after another, Balkan Insight has reported.
Statistics supplied by the business registration office at the Ministry of Trade and Industry are alarming, and show that around 45,000 registered businesses are not operating.
"Of the 90,000 businesses registered at the Ministry of Trade and Industry, around 50 per cent can be considered inactive," says the director of the business registration office, Mehdi Pllashniku.
Safet Gerxhaliu, of the Chamber of Commerce, says the number of inactive businesses is worrying. "This clearly illustrates that business in Kosovo is in crisis," he says.
