While Bosnia is expected to suffer considerable economic losses due to the coronavirus pandemic, the country already had numerous problems before the pandemic and its political leaders Bakir Izetbegovic, Milorad Dodik and Dragan Covic have “caused more damage to the citizens than the coronavirus did to the entire Balkans,” journalist and political commentator, Milovan Jovanovic, told N1 on Monday.

Jovanovic spoke about expectations regarding the economic decline in the region due to the coronavirus pandemic.

“The countries in the Western Balkans region which have a large share of tourism in their GDP will record the largest economic decline this year – primarily Croatia and Montenegro (around 9%). On the other hand, Serbia is expected to, due to stable economic indicators and successful anti-crisis measures, achieve the smallest decline in the region, but also in Europe – according to the forecasts of the IMF and the World Bank about 3%,” he said.

“As far as Bosnia and Herzegovina is concerned, a 5% drop in GDP is expected, and the crisis will further exacerbate the already existing structural problems of the economy – high fiscal and foreign trade deficits, as well as unemployment,” he said.

He pointed out that the scale of the economic crisis in the region will be greatly affected by the economic situation in the EU countries since they are some of the most important economic partners – primarily in Germany and Italy.

But he argued that Bosnia has been facing numerous problems before the pandemic as well, naming unemployment, corruption, crime, poverty, a mass exodus and hopelessness.

“Bosnia and Herzegovina is, unfortunately, scorched earth and Dodik, Izetbegovic and Covic are to blame for that. Those three caused more damage to the citizens of Bosnia and Herzegovina than the coronavirus did to the entire Balkans,” Jovanovic said.