The massive departure of BiH citizens, mainly to countries of the European Union, which has intensified over the last few years, will in the long run reflect the economic potential of the country.
In ten years, BiH has lost 250,000 working-age residents.
The Labor Force Survey, conducted by the BiH Agency for Statistics for 2018, states that BiH currently has 2,396 million working-age residents.
For comparison, the number of working-age population ten years ago in our country was 2,649 million. More than 10,000 households, almost six thousand in the FBiH and 3,600 in the RS participated in the survey.
The working-age population includes all persons aged 15 and over, divided into two main categories: labor force (economically active population) and economically inactive population. Only in the last two years, BiH has lost 93 thousand working-age residents. The latest data show that in the last two years, more than 50,000 citizens have moved from Bosnia and Herzegovina to Germany.
Economic analyst Faruk Hadzic points out that demographic characteristics are one of the most important for the country’s economic development.
“Depending on the size of the population, how our economy will develop in the future, the return of debt depends as well, because the dept will be returned by the ones who stayed, depends the issue of pensions, depends on the filling of funds, the budget and ultimately the overall economic system,” Hadzic says.
Hadzic is asking the authorities in charge how to solve the inevitable problems that will follow.
The average salary in FBiH is 894 BAM, and in RS 880 BAM. With the decline of the total population, the purchasing power of citizens is reduced, which will directly affect the collection of VAT. “Now there is a question of how to determine new strategies, everything that has been done and what has been determined is in vain if there are no residents. Who will return the loans for whom they are taken?” economist analyst Faruk Hadzic commented for Klix.ba news portal.
