EU enlargement rounds have always been driven by political will of the parties concerned and administered through a comprehensive legal-bureaucratic procedure. There is strong political determination to carry on the accession process involving Western Balkan countries as well as Ukraine, Georgia...

This note examines the grants and loans provided by the European Union (EU) and China to the Western Balkan economies. The EU remains dominant in grant funding, with annual Instrument for Preaccession Assistance (IPA) grants averaging 0.8% of the region's GDP, far above the 0.02% of GDP from...

The enlargement of the European Union towards the Western Balkans is experiencing unprecedented dynamism, supported by the launch of a tailored Euro 6 billion growth plan. This renewed momentum offers an important opportunity for the Western Balkans to accelerate economic convergence with the...

EU enlargement rounds have always been driven by political will of the parties concerned and administered through a comprehensive legal-bureaucratic procedure. There is strong political determination to carry on the accession process involving Western Balkan countries as well as Ukraine, Georgia...

In the context of the push by the European Union for regional integration in the Western Balkans, this paper explores the barriers to, and prospects for, deeper intra-Western Balkan economic relationships. First, it addresses the pronounced bilateral economic relationships between Western Balkan...

This unique insight into the corporate investment in Central, Eastern and South-Eastern Europe (CESEE) examines companies' finance needs and the constraints they face. The 2024 edition also provides insight into the pressing issues facing firms, such as climate change, high energy costs and the...

The report presents key data on several selected areas, such as the skillsets required to perform jobs among adult workers, their exposure to digitalisation, and its impact on skills needs and mismatches. Moreover, it also analyses workers' views on how technology may relate to either labour...

This report, aligned with the JRC's efforts under the Global Gateway strategy as EU flagship investment plan underpinning the external dimension of EU policy across the world, provides insights into Information and Communication Technologies (ICT) collaboration in the Western Balkans, crucial...

Digital transformation significantly impacts all aspects of the economic system, particularly the functioning of monetary policy and the financial sector. As a key process in modernization, digital transformation encompasses innovations that enable faster, safer and more efficient financial...

The evolving macroeconomic landscape, shaped by the global financial crisis and the COVID-19 pandemic, poses significant challenges for economies worldwide. However, Central, Eastern, and Southeastern European (CESEE) countries have demonstrated resilience and rapid recovery during crises,...

The Western Balkans' annual economic growth slowed markedly in the first quarter of 2025. The region's real GDP growth moderated to 2.3% y-o-y in Q1-2025 from 3.3% in the preceding quarter. All economies recorded lower growth than in the previous three months, with Serbia, the largest economy in...

This study explores the heterogeneous and asymmetric macro-financial effects of climate change in CESEE countries, depending on the level of underlying macrofinancial vulnerabilities. Focusing solely on acute physical risks - those arising from extreme weather events - it employs panel quantile...

This study used panel data analysis to investigate the relationship between economic growth and some selected macroeconomic variables such as the money supply, inflation, foreign direct investment (FDI), and government spending. The study used Fixed Effects (FE), Random Effects (RE), and...

The Western Balkans Regular Economic Report highlights the significant impact of extreme climate events on labor markets in the region. Rising temperatures, heavy precipitation, and other severe weather events are exacerbating existing vulnerabilities and creating new challenges for both workers...

Western Balkan countries aim to intensify their path toward the European Union as an opportunity to ensure peace, economic growth, and institutional sustainability. Apart from the regional challenges, the EU integration process of the WB is affected by different geopolitical challenges, such as...

This paper explores how inequality of opportunities (IOp) and institutional distrust shape beliefs about social and economic outcomes in the Western Balkans. Drawing on data from the Public Opinion Survey (2017-2021) conducted by the Regional Cooperation Council, we apply a robust multivariate...

The infrastructure investment could strongly influence the economic growth in the Western Balkans countries and contribute to improved regional cooperation and reconciliation and to faster integration into the EU. However, it is essential that public investments in infrastructure are properly...

The Western Balkan economies have faced numerous external shocks in recent years, while simultaneously becoming more integrated with the European Union. This paper employs a global vector autoregressive (GVAR) model to estimate the spillovers of real, financial, monetary, and global commodity...

Waste management and urban wastewater treatment are important sectors in the enlargement process As part of the EU accession process, the Western Balkans - Albania, Bosnia and Herzegovina, Kosovo*, Montenegro, North Macedonia, and Serbia - are required to align their legislation and standards...

This evaluation provides a comprehensive and independent assessment of the European Union's (EU) support for two major aspects of the green transition in the Western Balkans: waste management and urban wastewater treatment. It covered all six Western Balkan countries: Albania, Bosnia and...

This study investigates the influence of economic factors-such as energy use, foreign direct investment, inflation, GDP per capita, trade, population growth, and unemployment-on sustainable energy consumption (SEC) and renewable energy consumption (REC) across 38 OECD and 6 Western Balkan...

The banking sector in the Western Balkan countries has changed dramatically in recent years. A variety of factors have contributed to these changes, such as economic growth, increased competition, and the implementation of new regulations. As a result, the profitability of the banking sector...

This report presents results from the 2024 wave of the OeNB Euro Survey in Central, Eastern and Southeastern Europe (CESEE). This survey has been conducted since 2007 in selected CESEE countries, essentially the countries that have not yet (or only recently) adopted the euro. It serves to...

This report evaluates the current status of social protection systems in the six Western Balkan countries (Albania, Bosnia and Herzegovina, Kosovo, Montenegro, North Macedonia and Serbia), covering the four core instruments of social protection: social assistance; social services; active labour...

This report evaluates the current status of social protection systems in the six Western Balkan countries (Albania, Bosnia and Herzegovina, Kosovo, Montenegro, North Macedonia and Serbia), covering the four core instruments of social protection: social assistance; social services; active labour...

This report evaluates the current status of social protection systems in the six Western Balkan countries (Albania, Bosnia and Herzegovina, Kosovo, Montenegro, North Macedonia and Serbia), covering the four core instruments of social protection: social assistance; social services; active labour...

This report evaluates the current status of social protection systems in the six Western Balkan countries (Albania, Bosnia and Herzegovina, Kosovo, Montenegro, North Macedonia and Serbia), covering the four core instruments of social protection: social assistance; social services; active labour...

This paper examines the state of innovation in Central, Eastern, and South-Eastern EU countries. Despite increased innovation capacity, the region faces significant challenges threatening its growth and competitiveness, including severe skills shortages, uneven productivity, and barriers to...

The World Bank presents this report for the WB6 to provide an evidence-based policy narrative to showcase the opportunities for the WB6 transport sector to contribute to the green, resilient, and inclusive economic development (GRID) agenda. It discusses both passenger and freight transport....

The objective of this paper is to analyze the impact of central bank independence on inflation in Western Balkan countries, from 2010q1 to 2022q4. In this paper the panel Autoregressive Distributed Lags (ARDL) model for six Western Balkan countries is used to analyse the effects of central bank...

This paper examines the role of FinTech in advancing digitalization across Balkan economies, analysing key drivers of FinTech adoption and its impact on digital economy development. Using a Principal Component Analysis (PCA) approach, along with descriptive statistics, ANOVA, and cluster...

The Central, Eastern and South-Eastern Europe (CESEE) Bank Lending Survey was developed in the context of the Vienna Initiative 2.0 and has been endorsed by the various participating institutions as an instrument for: monitoring cross-border banking activities and deleveraging in the region;...

This FIW policy brief explores the negative effects of EU digital regulations on Western Balkan countries. It assesses how these countries have adapted to existing global data regulation models and explores potential avenues for boosting trade through the EU granting data adequacy status, aiming...

Migration has long shaped the demographic and economic realities of the Western Balkans, with Germany emerging as the primary destination for emigration. Since the 1990s, persistent emigration, combined with negative natural population growth, has led to significant population declines in...

Since 2022, the continuous spread of highly pathogenic type A subtype H5N1 avian influenza virus has caused outbreaks in poultry worldwide. This has led to infections in various wildlife and domestic mammalian species, including recent outbreaks among cows in the United States (US), as well as...

Drought conditions have affected large parts of south-eastern Europe, the eastern Mediterranean, and the Black Sea since early 2025, with a partial and temporary recovery in late spring and another worsening in early summer, with concern for the coming months. Above-average temperatures in...

Annual economic growth accelerated slightly in the Western Balkans in the second quarter of 2025. The region's real GDP growth picked-up to 2.6% y-o-y in Q2-2025 from 2.3% in the previous quarter as all economies except Albania recorded higher rates of output growth. Kosovo registered the...

Non-performing loans represent a very important indicator of the banking sector stability and, at the same time, of the financial system of an economy. A high share of non-performing loans in the structure of total loans can represent a potential cause of the insolvency of the banking system and...

The paper analyzes the determinants of bank net interest margin in the selected Southeast European countries in the period from 2012 to 2021. The group includes the countries with similar socio-economic features and financial system. The aim of the paper is to identify the common determinants of...

This report describes the employment and social situation of young people in the Western Balkans (Albania, Bosnia and Herzegovina, Kosovo, Montenegro, North Macedonia and Serbia - the WB6) and also looks at employment in Türkiye. It focuses on young people because they were particularly hard...