The consumption of foreigners raised the Montenegrin GDP

Montenegro’s gross domestic product (GDP) grew in the first quarter of this year compared to the same period last year by 6.1 percent, mostly due to the growth of household consumption, the Monstat Statistics Authority announced yesterday.
GDP for these three months amounted to 1.22 billion euros, while for the same period last year it was worth 1.03 billion. GDP had a nominal growth of 18.2 percent, and when the influence of inflation is excluded, the real growth is 6.1 percent.
Household consumption, as one of the parts of GDP, in this quarter amounted to 1.09 billion euros and was 207 million or 23 percent higher than in the same period last year. This refers to the total turnover achieved by citizens, whether they are citizens, tourists or foreigners with temporary residence.
This increase in consumption was influenced by the increase in wages and other incomes of citizens, the increase in the number of tourists and their consumption, but also the increase in the number of foreigners with temporary residence, especially from Ukraine and Russia.
GDP also includes state consumption, which increased from 232 to 259 million or by 11.6 percent for these comparative periods. Government spending on public projects grew at the level of inflationary influence, so it had no impact on real growth.
Gross investments in fixed assets of the economy grew from 253 to 286 million euros, which is a growth of 13 percent, and is only a partial percentage above the inflationary influence.
An item that almost always has a negative effect on GDP in Montenegrin circumstances is the balance between imports and exports of goods and services. This balance was in the red for these three months by 430 million euros, while in the same period last year the loss amounted to 334 million euros. So the negative effect of this item increased by 28 percent.
Exports of goods and services were worth 666 million and were higher by 178 million, while imports increased by 273 million to 1.09 billion. The reasons for the growth of this negative impact are the increase in the import of goods for general consumption, such as food by 30 percent, cars by 74 percent, beverages and tobacco by 57 percent, petroleum products by 18 percent, clothing by 38 percent, footwear by 67 percent…
As the export of goods and services also includes the consumption of foreign tourists, this balance will be positive only during the third quarter (July, August, September) when it is a good tourist year.
Minister of Economic Development and Tourism Goran Đurović wrote on his Twitter account yesterday that the growth of “an incredible 6.1 percent is an indicator of the work of the Government of Montenegro and proof that this country is on the right track.”
Yesterday, Monstat also published the Eurostat table, according to which Montenegro has the second largest GDP growth, and Iceland is in first place with a growth of 7.1 percent.
Eurostat keeps these data for 27 member countries, as well as for seven candidates and other countries in Europe that have adapted their statistics to its standards.
Iceland and Montenegro are followed by Spain with growth of 4.1%, Turkey with four percent, Cyprus with 3.4%, Malta with 3.1%, Norway with three, Croatia and Denmark with 2.8% each… Average growth in EU member states was 1.1 percent.
As many as eight countries had negative growth, that is, economic decline in this quarter. These are Estonia with a minus of 3.2 percent, Lithuania with 2.5 percent, Hungary with 0.9 percent, Germany and Ireland with a minus of 0.2 percent and Poland, the Czech Republic and Finland which had a decline in the economy by 0.1 percent.
Of the countries in the region, after Montenegro, Croatia had the highest growth at 2.8 percent, followed by North Macedonia at 2.1 percent and Slovenia and Serbia at 0.7 percent each. Bosnia and Herzegovina, Albania and Kosovo are not on Eurostat’s lists.

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