PODGORICA (Montenegro), November 6
(SeeNews) – Montenegro's government forecasts 1.0% economic growth
for next year when the Adriatic country would start slowly exiting
the crisis, a senior cabinet member said.
“This
will be a good base to enter from 2011 into what was typical for our
economy in the 2006-2008 period, when we saw extremely high growth
rates of six to eight percent,” deputy Prime Minister in charge of
economic policy and financial system Vuijca Lazovic said after a
government meeting on Thursday. An audio file with his remarks is
uploaded on the government's website.
Lazovic said the Montenegrin economy
contracted 4.0% on the year to 2.67 billion euro ($3.98 billion) in
the first nine months of 2009. The fall was mainly due to a 31% drop
in the January-September industrial production, a 21% slide in the
value of construction works in the six months to June, and an 11%
decrease in trade turnover in the first eight months of the year.
Lazovic said the contraction was not
bigger thanks to low and stable inflation of 1.7% in September, a 15%
annual increase in net foreign direct investment to 454 million euro
in the first eight months, and stable tourism revenue at last year’s
level.
Trade turnover dropped by an annual 40%
to 1.413 million euro in the January-September period. Trade deficit
fell 39% on the year through September to 37% of the gross domestic
product projected for 2009. ($=0.6736 euro) (Source: seenews.com)
