This Regular Economic Report (RER) covers economic developments, prospects, and economic policies in the Western Balkans’ region: Albania, Bosnia and Herzegovina, Kosovo, Montenegro, North Macedonia and Serbia.

The report is produced twice a year by a team led by Edith Kikoni and Enrique Blanco Armas (Task Team Leaders). This issue’s core team included World Bank staff working on the Western Balkan countries (with additional contributions to specific sections): Christoph Ungerer, Nicolo Dalvit (Growth section), Sanja Madžarević-Šujster, Filip Jolevski (Labor section), Trang Nguyen, Ana Maria Oviedo, Leonardo Lucchetti (Poverty section), Milan Lakićević, Besart Myderrizi (Fiscal section), Hilda Shijaku (Monetary section), Johanna Jaeger (Financial sector section), Sandra Hlivnjak (External section), Lazar Šestović (Outlook section) and Tania Ghossein, Sylvia Solf and Ahmed Nauraiz Rana (Spotlight). Additional contributions were made by: Stefanie KoettlBrodmann (Spotlight); Collette Wheeler (Outlook Section); Carlos Gustavo Ospino Hernandez (Poverty section); Alena Kantarovich, Alper Oguz, Gunhild Berg, Keler Gjika and Qianye Zhang (Financial sector section) and Marc Schiffbauer and Asli Senkal.

Research assistance was provided by Suzana Jukić. Anne Grant provided assistance in editing, and Budy Wirasmo assistance in designing. The cover image was created by Sanja Tanić.

The dissemination of the report and external and media relations are managed by an External Communications team comprised of John Mackedon, Artem Kolesnikov, Paul A. Clare, Lundrim Aliu, Anita Božinovska, Ana Gjokutaj, Jasmina Hadžić, Gordana Filipovic, Mirjana Popović, Sanja Tanić and Carl P. Hanlon.

The team is grateful to Linda Van Gelder (Regional Director for the Western Balkans); Lalita Moorty (Regional Director, Equitable Growth, Finance and Institutions); Jasmin Chakeri (Practice Manager, Macroeconomics, Trade, and Investment Global Practice); and the Western Balkans Country Management team for their guidance in preparation of this report. The team is also thankful for comments on earlier drafts of this report received from the Ministries of Finance and Central Banks in Western Balkans countries.