Bosnia’s exports in 2017 have increased by 17.5 percent, and the trend continued in 2018. The Country’s import-export coverage exceeded 62 percent, said Bosnia’s Council of Ministers (CoM) Chairman during a gala event titled “100 Greatest” in Sarajevo.

The event presented the 100 greatest companies in the country and for the third time in a row, Bosnia’s greatest electric company “Elektroprivreda BiH” was the most successful company revenues wise. Bosnia’s biggest exporter was “ArcelorMittal” and the biggest company net-income wise was the “Bingo” retail company.

As one of the speakers at the event, Chairman Denis Zvizdic spoke of some economic indicators in the country, pointing out that Bosnia’s exports have increased by 17.5 percent in 2017 and that this trend continued in 2018 when the total exports in the first six months amounted to BAM 6 billion (around EUR 3 billion).

“This means that the 2018 exports will rise by 12-15 percent compared to 2017, which means that in the next four years, this increase could amount to as much as 50 percent,” Zvizdic said, adding that Bosnia’s import-export coverage reached 62 percent. Bosnia's import-export coverage with the EU, as its main trade partner, reached just over 75 percent.

He recalled that Bosnia mostly exports to Germany, Croatia, Italy, Serbia, Slovenia, Austria and Turkey.

The number of employees has surpassed the number of 805,000 in July this year, the Chairman noted, adding that this number was as low as 700,000 in April 2015 when this convocation of the Council of Ministers was first formed.

According to Zvizdic, the unemployment rate dropped from 25.4 percent in 2016 to 20.5 percent at the end of 2017, and  the country’s public debt was decreased by some BAM 750 million at the end of 2017 making Bosnia the least indebted country in Europe.