Constituency Meeting on 2016 in Sarajevo

The next annual meeting of the Constituency members of the European Bank for Reconstruction and Development (EBRD), to which Bosnia and Herzegovina belongs, will be held in Sarajevo. During today's meeting held in Jerusalem, in Israel, Ph.D Kemal Kozarić, Governor of the Central Bank of Bosnia and Herzegovina (CBBH), authorized by BH Governor in EBRD, Zlatko Lagumdžija,Ph.D. invited the governors and deputy governors within the EBRD to have the next gathering in Sarajevo.

Constituency meetings of the EBRD countries are held every year as preparatory meetings for the annual meeting of the EBRD. The Constituency chaired by Austria, along with Bosnia and Herzegovina, also includes Cyprus, Malta, Israel and Kazakhstan.

During the presentation of macroeconomic data, Governor Kozarić said that Bosnia and Herzegovina, despite a very difficult year, managed to stay in positive zone of the GDP growth, which for 2014 amounted to 0.7%. "Unfortunately, a series of negative events, especially the disastrous floods in our country, have led us to several times changing projections downward, said Governor.

However, forecasts of the CBBH for 2015 indicate that this year will bring a slight economic recovery. "Our forecast for 2015 is GDP growth of 2.5%, while the EBRD anticipates even greater recovery of 2.7%. Also, we expect industrial production growth of 5% and reducing of unemployment rate of 1.3%, since the unemployment rate from 27.5% is the biggest issue of the BH economy, "said Governor.

During the last few years, one of the key elements of economic recovery of Bosnia and Herzegovina was the participation of the international financial institutions. EBRD is the largest institutional investors in BH. Since 1996, when the EBRD started operations in Bosnia and Herzegovina, there have been financed 119 projects with a total value of EUR 1.7 billion. Out of this amount, 46% was invested in the reconstruction of infrastructure, 11% in energy resources, 14% on the projects in economy, trade and agriculture, and 29% in financial institutions.

"It is particularly important to mention that the EBRD has remained firmly with Bosnia and Herzegovina during the global financial crisis and that it continued to support infrastructure projects, energy sector and small and medium enterprise s of private ownership, and the EBRD representatives promised further partner relationship with BH, "said Governor Kemal Kozarić, Ph.D.