According to the lasts report of the European Commission for the candidate countries and potential candidates, growth performance in the Western Balkans was improved in the Q3 of 2016, when the region’s production was accelerated to 2.5% on annual basis. This rate was mainly impacted from the production growth in Serbia, which is the largest economy in the region with 2.6% of GDP.

     The report stated that Serbia’s GDP was supported by strong exports and the investments’ performance. Also, Kosovo and Bosnia-Herzegovina have recorded a stronger production growth, while Macedonia has registered a slowdown to 2.4% (from 3.1% ) due to the declining of the investments and trust, as result of the long political crisis. Annual production growth was also slightly slowdown in Albania and Montenegro, but both countries have continued to benefit from the investments and exports. With reference to Albania, the report has stated that the growth was 3.1% on annual basis in the Q3 of 2016, compared to the revised growth of 3.3% in Q1 and 3.4% in Q2 of 2016.

     Consumption growth was slowdown from 4.1% in Q2 to 1.6% in Q3. The labor market was improved while the unemployment rate fall to 15.2%, as result of the employment growth in industry, service and agriculture sectors. Revenues for the period of Jan-Nov 2016 were 1.4% less than the plan. With the revision of the budget, the public debt was increased by 0.4 points reaching to 71.3% of GDP and the bad loans have experienced a decrease from 21.4% that was registered in August 2016 to 20.4% in November 2016.