Western Balkans Regular Economic Report No.23, Spring 2023 Testing Resilience

The six countries of the Western Balkans have seen their resilience tested over the last three years. Growth in the Western Balkan economies started strong in early 2022, before moderating toward year-end, but the impact of major shocks, such as electricity and heating outages, has been less severe...

Full description

Bibliographic Details
Corporate Author: World Bank Group
Format: eBook
Language:English
Published: Washington, D.C The World Bank 2023
Series:Economic Updates and Modeling
Subjects:
Online Access:
Collection: World Bank E-Library Archive - Collection details see MPG.ReNa
LEADER 02225nmm a2200313 u 4500
001 EB002177237
003 EBX01000000000000001314771
005 00000000000000.0
007 cr|||||||||||||||||||||
008 231006 ||| eng
245 0 0 |a Western Balkans Regular Economic Report No.23, Spring 2023  |h Elektronische Ressource  |b Testing Resilience 
260 |a Washington, D.C  |b The World Bank  |c 2023 
653 |a Environmental Fiscal Measures 
653 |a Macroeconomics and Economic Growth 
653 |a Inflation 
653 |a Economic Forecasting 
653 |a Economic Growth 
653 |a Energy Markets 
653 |a Energy Crisis 
653 |a Food and Energy Prices 
653 |a Western Balkans 
710 2 |a World Bank Group 
041 0 7 |a eng  |2 ISO 639-2 
989 |b WOBA  |a World Bank E-Library Archive 
490 0 |a Economic Updates and Modeling 
028 5 0 |a 10.1596/39890 
856 4 0 |u http://elibrary.worldbank.org/doi/book/10.1596/39890  |x Verlag  |3 Volltext 
082 0 |a 330 
520 |a The six countries of the Western Balkans have seen their resilience tested over the last three years. Growth in the Western Balkan economies started strong in early 2022, before moderating toward year-end, but the impact of major shocks, such as electricity and heating outages, has been less severe than expected. Inflation surged to a two-decade high in 2022 in almost all economies, and price pressures remain elevated in early 2023. Higher food and energy prices have affected low-income households especially severely, resulting in a much slower pace of poverty reduction in 2022 despite universal government support. In the medium term, the Western Balkans continues to have a positive outlook, but reforms are needed to rebuild buffers, accelerate the green transition, and to address key structural challenges. The ongoing energy crisis has highlighted the need to accelerate the green transition across Europe, including in the Western Balkans. A key starting point in this regard is to accelerate the move toward carbon pricing and to increase the use of environmental fiscal measures that incentivize households and firms to shift toward lower carbon intensity with respect to economic activity