In the first half of this year, exports appeared to be recovering, after the downward trend of the past two years. Official data showed that for the first seven months, exports totaled 238.5 billion lek, an increase of 2.6% compared to the same period a year earlier. In July, exports were 35.2 billion lek, an expansion of 5.7%.
A large part of the recovery was related to the strong growth in sales to Kosovo, which expanded by 72.5% for the 7-month period. “Monitor” has learned that we are not dealing with real growth, but simply with a change in methodology, since from January 1, 2025, fuel transits to Kosovo are also reported as re-exports. As a result, the chapter “Mineral fuels, mineral oils and products of their distillation” to Kosovo was 26.4 billion lek in January-July 2025, from 2.7 billion lek in January-July 2024, with an increase of 864%, or 23.6 billion lek more. If the transit effect is removed, the growth would be 12% and this group would result in only 3 billion lek.
By reclassifying transit as exports, exports to Kosovo have increased by 23.3 billion lek, which is not a real increase. If we subtract this amount from the total exports for the 7 months (which are 238.5 billion lek), they would decrease to 215.3 billion lek. For the 7 months of 2024, exports in total were 232 billion lek, according to INSTAT.
As a result, by removing the fuel transit figure to Kosovo, for January-July 2025, exports have shrunk by 7.4%, continuing the negative trend. Perhaps INSTAT, when reporting the data, should separate it, or make a note of the re-export figure to Kosovo, as it will create a wrong idea about the real performance of sales abroad, while official institutions were advertising the improvement of the export situation in the country!/ Monitor
