Kosovo plans to issue its first Eurobond at the beginning of 2012 to the value of several tens of millions of euros, Finance Minister Bedri Hamza said on Friday. "We are at the final stage of preparations for the bond issue," Hamza told Reuters in an interview on the sidelines of a regional economic conference in Slovenia.
Kosovo expects growth of its gross domestic product (GDP) to rise to 7 percent by 2014, up from 5.5 percent this year, which should help to reduce unemployment, Hamza said. Unemployment stands at 48 percent, according to the World Bank figures. Hamza said the privatisation of state-owned telecom firm PTK should be finalised this year which should help to keep the budget deficit at below 3 percent of GDP.
Kosovo plans to start negotiating a new stand-by arrangement with the International Monetary Fund (IMF) early next year, he said. Earlier in June the IMF ended a stand-by arrangement with Kosovo after the government deviated from its agreed programme by increasing public sector wages.