Kosovo's 2025 Budget is being discussed today in the Assembly, focusing on increasing funds for defense and infrastructure

The draft law on budget allocations for the year 2025 is reviewed today in the Assembly of Kosovo.

The draft budget in the amount of 3.6 billion euros was approved by the Government of Kosovo on October 30.

Its value is 9 percent higher than the 2024 budget of 3.3 billion euros.

On the day of approval in the Government, the Prime Minister of Kosovo, Albin Kurti, said that during the four years of the government of his party, the Vetëvendosje Movement, the budget of Kosovo has increased "year after year like never before".
The draft budget envisages an increase in almost all expenditure categories, but mostly in subsidies and transfers.

These are funds provided by the state to help companies, individuals or specific sectors of the economy, such as agriculture.

The category for capital expenditures will also have an increase of 71 million euros, compared to this year's budget.

Compared to this year, there will also be an increase in the category for salaries and allowances for 111 million euros.

In this category, this action was taken to cover the increase in salaries and pensions.

At the end of last month, the Government of Kosovo made a decision to increase the salaries of about 90,000 public sector workers - by 55 euros from January and another 55 euros from July next year.

On October 7, the Government of Kosovo also decided to increase pensions by 20 percent.

Next year, some of the central institutions of the state, including those in the defense, security, health and road infrastructure sectors, will have budget increases.

Among other things, the data show that the budget of the Ministry of Finance will be the highest, that of the Ministry of Defense will increase by more than 54 million euros compared to this year, while that of the Ministry of Infrastructure by about 47 million.

In the Budget Project for 2025, it is stated that during the current year the economy of Kosovo is expected to grow by 4.5 percent, continuing the growth trend next year, namely by 5.6 percent.

The main contribution to economic growth during 2025 is said to come from private consumption, private and public investments, but also from exports of goods and services.

The budget of Kosovo is usually filled by the revenues of the Customs and Tax Administration of Kosovo.

Today's review is the first in the Assembly of Kosovo.

The draft budget must also come out in the second review, while in certain cases it also comes out in the third.

It should be approved by the end of this year at the latest./ REL