Kosovo is the only country in the region, which has no gold reserves. The Central Bank of Kosovo has confirmed that "at the moment it does not hold international reserves in gold and other precious metals in its portfolio". Meanwhile, in the statement of financial assets published by this bank, there are around 1 billion and 847 thousand euros, as capital reserves.
Gold, as an asset, has greater liquidity and price stability, and countries that do not want to accept any high risk, are oriented to keep gold in their reserves as their financial asset.
The Ministry of Finance has not answered whether it plans to create such reserves.
Meanwhile, the former Minister of Finance, Haki Shatri, told Radio Free Europe that there are several reasons why Kosovo has not managed to create such reserves.
According to him, Kosovo came out of the war in 1999, without inheriting such reserves from the former Yugoslavia. According to him, initially, in the first five years after the war, Kosovo had invested in the creation of institutional infrastructure and the creation of preconditions to form the state, with a very formal budget of around 300 million euros. After the declaration of independence in February 2008, investments were needed to build capacities for law enforcement and the construction of institutions dealing with tax collection and customs.
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"The reason why we don't have (gold reserves), initially, is the weak capacity and the small possibility to have more (budgetary capital). If we had more reserves, then instead of keeping them in foreign currency, the state would convert them into gold reserves, if it was estimated that the performance of the price of gold, when purchased, is favorable. But it also depends on the price movements in the market", said Shatri.
In addition to the lack of gold reserves, Kosovo does not even have its own national currency and uses the euro. In the absence of a national currency, Montenegro also uses the euro, while other countries that emerged from the former Yugoslavia have their own national currencies. Mejdi Bektashi, professor of Economics at the University of Pristina, has stated that the lack of national currency is justified by the lack of gold reserves.
According to him, the Republic of Serbia is the heir of the former system of Yugoslavia. As Bektashi says, the states that emerged from the former Yugoslavia inherited parts of the wealth of over 200 tons of gold that were reserves of the former common state. However, Kosovo is still not recognized by Serbia and as a result, as he says, financial and economic succession has not been carried out between these two countries. Consequently, Kosovo did not inherit part of the gold wealth that former Yugoslavia and its successor, Serbia, had.
"Until the political problems are finished, we cannot begin to engage in economic and financial succession with Serbia. The other reason why we are the only country that does not have gold reserves has to do with certain restrictions that the Central Bank had in the given period. Although, according to a formula, all developed countries keep reserves in one third - to spread the risk - in dollars, euros and gold. We are the only ones who only have euros", he said.
Former minister Shatri expresses the opinion that considering the great demands that the country had during the construction of statehood, in front of the budget, according to him, not great, no one should be blamed for the impossibility of creating gold reserves.
"I can't blame any of the governments, not even the current one, because it didn't depend on them. Simply, there were no opportunities and this is our potential", Shatri assessed.
He added that it remains only to hope that Kosovo will not face any crisis, where gold reserves would be necessary.
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Professor Bektashi emphasizes that the countries of the Western Balkan region, in the last years of the financial crisis, have significantly increased their gold reserves. But, he expresses the opinion that even if eventually Kosovo would start securing gold reserves, currently it is not the time for such a thing.
"Now the price of gold has reached for one ounce (31.103 grams) over 1,700 dollars, it is very dangerous that at this price, which maybe in the future - if the financial crisis and the energy crisis, which has captured not only the region, but also the world - it can decrease", emphasizes Bektashi.
Currently, Serbia's gold reserves are 37.2 tons. North Macedonia has 6.9 tons of gold reserves, Bosnia and Herzegovina has 2.9 tons, Albania has 2.8 tons. Meanwhile, Montenegro has 1.9 tons of gold reserves, but they are deposited for loans. Recently, Serbia has returned to the country all the gold reserves, which were kept abroad. Currently, 37.2 tons of gold, as much as Serbia has reserves, have a value of 1.9 billion euros.
According to the National Bank of Serbia, the reason for the return of the gold bars from the vaults in Switzerland and England is that "in an environment of increased global uncertainty, it wanted to further increase the security and accessibility of its gold".
The world's central banks currently hold more than 35.000 tons of gold.
According to the data of the World Gold Council (World Gold Council), which keeps records by country, the United States has the largest gold reserves - 8,133 tons, which is almost 78 percent of the country's total foreign reserves.
It is followed by Germany with 3,359 tons and Italy and France with more than 2,000 tons of gold.
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Significant amounts of gold in the last decade have been bought by Russia and China, which occupy the fifth and sixth places in the world list.
The Central Bank of Russia currently owns 2,292 tons of gold, which increased the amount of reserves to more than 20 percent. Russia further increased its purchases in 2018, as investments in US bonds were reduced to a minimum after Washington imposed sanctions on that country due to the annexation of the Ukrainian peninsula of Crimea, writes Reuters. /REL
