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Economic Task Force Secretariat
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Dec-98 | Jan-99 | Feb-99 | Mar-99 | |
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Unemployment (persons) | 398639 | 401775 | 404940 | 407859 |
Net wage (KM) | 330 | 335 | 337 | 329 |
Federation of BiH
Nov-99 | Dec-99 | Jan-00 | Feb-00 | |
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Unemployment (persons) | 265453 | 261793 | 263082 | |
Employment (persons) | 408711 | 410104 | 411020 | |
Unemployment ratio (1) | 43.5% | 42.4% | 42.5% | |
Net wage (KM) | 382 | 386 | 381 | |
Retail price growth | 0.2% | 0.5% | 0.4% | 0.8% |
- annual growth (2) | -0.9% | -1.0% | -1.1% | -0.3% |
Industrial prod growth | -1.0% | 0.3% | -8.2% | -0.6% |
- annual growth (2) | 16.3% | 9.1% | 21.9% | 19.9% |
Sales to RS (KM million) | 11.5 | 9.4(3) | 3.3 | 6.8 |
Republika Srpska (RS)
Nov-99 | Dec-99 | Jan-00 | Feb-00 | |
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Unemployment (persons) |
To be revised
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Employment (persons) |
To be revised
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Unemployment ratio (1) |
To be revised
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Net wage (KM) | 230 | 272 | 222 | 237 |
Retail price growth | 0.9% | 0.4% | 1.0% | 2.6% |
- annual growth (2) | 15.0% | 14.0% | 10.8% | 14.1% |
Industrial prod growth | -17.3% | 19.9% | ||
- annual growth (2) | -17.6% | -7.3% | ||
Sales to FBiH (KM million) | 6.6 | 4.1(3) | 3.2 | 2.0 |
Sources: BiH Agency of Statistics, Federation Statistical Institute
and RS Statistical Institute. Growth figures are over one month,
unless indicated otherwise. Inflation in KM prices. (1) Number of unemployed over employed plus unemployed, excludes waiting list (53 912 persons in December 1999) and gray economy; (2) Annual figure, month this year over month previous year. (3) Figures revised by the Federation Agency of Statistics,com-pared to the previous issue. |
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Table 1 1999 BiH Trade (KM million) | |||
  | BiH | Federation | RS |
Total exports | 1,375 | 950 | 425 |
Total imports | 6,047 | 4,458 | 1,589 |
Imports/Exports | 23% | 21% | 27% |
Exports from BiH in 1999 amounted to nearly KM 1.4 billion or, 23 percent of imports KM 6 billion and the trade deficit was over KM 4.6 billion. The main exports were to Italy, Federal Republic of Yugoslavia, Croatia and Germany.
Table 2 1999 Exports from BiH (KM million) | ||||||
  | Italy | FRY | Croatia | Germany | Other | Total |
BiH | 270 | 244 | 202 | 144 | 515 | 1,375 |
Fed. | 199 | 60 | 195 | 124 | 372 | 950 |
RS | 71 | 184 | 7 | 20 | 143 | 425 |
As shown in Table 3 below, Croatia, Italy, Slovenia and Germany were the principal sources of imports. Details of the Other category were as follows: FRY - KM 384 million (Federation: 17, RS: 367); Hungary - KM 296 million (Federation: 175, RS: 121); Austria - KM 289 million (Federation: 198, RS: 91). Imports from Rest of the World amounted to KM 1,692 million and countries within Europe, USA and Japan were the main trading partners in this group.
Table 3 1999 Imports to BiH (KM million) | ||||||
  | Croatia | Italy | Slovenia | Germany | Other | Total |
BiH | 1,020 | 979 | 753 | 634 | 2,661 | 6,047 |
Fed. | 964 | 827 | 577 | 556 | 1,534 | 4,458 |
RS | 56 | 152 | 176 | 78 | 1,127 | 1,589 |
Compared to 1998, exports in 1999 from BiH and the Federation grew by 32 percent and 54 percent respectively, whereas RS exports remained at the 1998 level although there was a strong recovery in the second half of 1999, following the Kosovo crisis. Exports from the Federation mainly consisted of textiles, wood and base metals.
On March 31, the High Representative issued a decree extending the validity of the Additional Import Duties levied on certain items imported to Bosnia and Herzegovina. This extension was granted to June 30, 2000.
These Duties are applied to predominately agricultural items and fall outside of the normal tariffs for BiH. These Duties will have to be eventually regularized into the normal tariff structure, and it is the view of the Ministry of Foreign and Economic Relations of BiH that a plan to achieve this will be promulgated over the coming months. A key factor in the regularization will be the necessity to ensure that the proposed changes result in a revenue-neutral impact.
Between March 1, 1999 and February 29, 2000, revenues from the Additional Import Duties amounted to KM 79 million for the Federation and KM 43.3 million for the RS or, KM 122.3 million for the entire territory of BiH. For the same period, import tariffs in the Federation and the RS amounted to KM 244 million and about KM 85 million respectively.
Vigorous efforts of the OHR Ant-Fraud and United Nations Judicial System Assistance Support Programme in the Tuzla canton has led to verdicts for the former Prime Minister, Hazim Vikalo (imprisonment of two years and two months) and other members of his administration, including the former Minister of Finance, Halid Kovac. The OHR Anti-Fraud Unit worked on this case for more than year. To advance the judicial process forward, it was compelled to remove four prosecutors and the cantonal Minister of Interior.
Public Awareness Campaign
The first phase the anti-corruption campaign publicized between February 14-17 has resonated well with the public frustration caused by a widespread corruption and the lack of progress in fighting fraud and corruption. It was evident that the public is tired of the current situation and ready for changes. The second segment of the campaign will build on the effects of the first phase.
Seminar in Romania
As a part of the OHR's Anti-Fraud Unit's ongoing anti-corruption efforts in implementing the Comprehensive Anti-Corruption Strategy, BiH delegation participated in the Council of Europe's seminar on Corporate Criminal Liability held in Romania, March 1-3.
The alarming increase in economic crimes committed by legal entities in transition countries has led to calls for urgent action. The seminar assessed the existing legislation and sanction tools, resulting in recommendations on further steps to enhance and adhere to international instruments. BiH recommendations focused on strengthening the existing measures against legal entities and introducing legislation that regulates behavior of responsible individuals such as conflict of interest, code of ethics, and financial disclosure for public officials.
Anti-Corruption Strategy of the Federation of BiH
The Federation Government of Bosnia and Herzegovina created an Anti-Corruption Strategy outlining priorities and an action plan for 2000, encompassing reform requirements of the OHR's Comprehensive Anti-Corruption Strategy and the Sta-bility Pact's anti-corruption initiative. In the document, the Federation government commits itself to collaborate with the OHR and other international agencies in drafting anti-corruption laws, as well as to work jointly on other anti-corruption projects.
The document also supports judicial and law enforcement reform, institutional capacity building, the establishment of a Parliamentary Anti-Corruption Commission, an Anti-Corruption team within the Federation Prosecutor Office, and a Transparency Office to review all proposed legislation and regulations to insure full transparency.
Stability Pact Representatives Visit Bosnia and Herzegovina
Members of the Stability Pact's Anti-Corruption Initiative Managing Committee visited Sarajevo on March 22-23. They met with representatives of the International Community and members of the local authorities, to discuss progress in the implementation of the Stability Pact anti-corruption initiative's initial goals set at the Sarajevo meeting on February 15-16, and to identify a BiH liaison officer to report to the Stability Pact on corruption issues.
BiH Minister of Foreign Affairs, Jadranko Prlic, confirmed the full commitment of Bosnia and Herzegovina to the Anti-Corruption Initiative, and appointed Nedzad Hadzimusic as the BiH liaison officer. As an illustration of this commitment, BiH had acceded to the International Criminal Law Convention on Corruption in February.
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This Newsletter is published under
the authority of Wolfgang Petritsch, High Representative.
Editor-in Chief: Managing Editors: Information on economic data and trends in BiH are also available on the USAID web site: http://www.usaid.ba/ |
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