Chinese trade threatens Balkan economic growth: WB

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SARAJEVO, July 17 (AFP): China's trade competitiveness is threatening to slow down economic growth in the Western Balkans, the World Bank warned yesterday.

"China competes against the countries of the West Balkans ... in a very wide range of products," the bank's top economist for Europe and the Middle East, Sanjay Kathuria, told reporters in the Bosnian capital.

"Against this, the exports of the countries in the region are not doing particulary well, and there are concerns about their sustainability," he warned.

In its latest report, the World Bank recommended the small countries of the region seek to strengthen their fragile economies by boosting trade cooperation with each other.

"This will make (the) effective market larger ... more competitive, and will improve the quality and cost of goods and services," Kathuria said.

He singled out a free trade agreement in force in the region since 2006 as a useful tool to achieve that.

The World Bank report on the Western Balkans included the following countries: Albania, Bosnia-Hercegovina, Bulgaria, Croatia, Macedonia, Montenegro, Romania, Serbia and Slovakia.

Besides China, Kathura stressed trade preferences that have been enjoyed for several years by the countries of the former Yugoslavia were "now eroding."