Bosnia and Herzegovina ranked next to Macedonia as the poorest republic in the old Yugoslav federation. Although agriculture is almost all in private hands, farms are small and inefficient, and the republic traditionally is a net importer of food. The private sector is growing and foreign investment is slowly increasing, but government spending, at nearly 40% of adjusted GDP, remains unreasonably high. The interethnic warfare in Bosnia caused production to plummet by 80% from 1992 to 1995 and unemployment to soar. With an uneasy peace in place, output recovered in 1996-99 at high percentage rates from a low base; but output growth slowed in 2000-02. Part of the lag in output was made up in 2003-06 when GDP growth exceeded 5% per year. National-level statistics are limited and do not capture the large share of black market activity. The konvertibilna marka (convertible mark or BAM)- the national currency introduced in 1998 - is pegged to the euro, and confidence in the currency and the banking sector has increased. Implementing privatization, however, has been slow, particularly in the Federation, although it is increasing in the Republika Srpska. Banking reform accelerated in 2001 as all the Communist-era payments bureaus were shut down; foreign banks, primarily from Western Europe, now control most of the banking sector. A sizeable current account deficit and high unemployment rate remain the two most serious economic problems. On 1 January 2006 a new value-added tax (VAT) went into effect. The VAT has been successful in capturing much of the gray market economy and has developed into a significant and predictable source of revenues for all layers of government. The question of how to allocate revenue from VAT receipts is not completely resolved. Bosnia and Herzegovina became a member of the Central European Free Trade Agreement in December 2006. The country receives substantial reconstruction assistance and humanitarian aid from the international community but will have to prepare for an era of declining assistance.
More finance information from Bosnia and Herzegovina:
General Economic Links:
| Chase.com |
| With many branches across the U.S., Chase provides many personal and business banking services
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| DealBook |
| The New York Times online daily digest of finance news and analysis is constantly updated during the market day.
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| Financial Times |
| This venerable international business newspaper reports extensively on business and stock markets.
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| Financial-portal.com |
Portal presents comprehensive financial resources, articles, news, stats, indexes, financial institutions etc:
- articles on financial topics
- financial news
- latest currency charts
- latest gold, silver, platinum and other precious metal prices
- current financial indexes and dynamic graphs
- universal currency converters (all major currencies)
- stock, commodity and other major exchanges
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| Finweb.com - the independent financial portal |
| "Financial security. Everyone wants it; few have it. Many do not realize that true financial security requires strength in every area of one’s financial affairs. It requires a systematic approach, a strategic plan implemented over time, in order to obtain it. But it can be obtained. With the proper educational training and discipline, financial stability and security is within anyone’s grasp. That’s why we’re here: to provide you with a solid foundation of valuable financial knowledge from which to proceed..."
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| Fitch Ratings |
| Provides independent global credit rating information for the world’s credit markets
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| Forbes.com |
| Extensive coverage of business and financial news, Forbes is one of the premier sites covering the world of business.
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| Google Finance |
| Google Finance provides an unclutered interface to finance news, market summary with graphs, stock quotes, top movers and other indicators. Also search companies by stock code.
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| Kiplinger |
| Personal finance site that offers calculators, business news, quotes and much more personal finance information
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| MarketWatch |
| This Dow Jones operated site provides personal finance news, advice and stock market data and analysis
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| MSN Money |
| The MSN (Microsoft Network) provides a finance portal including latest finance news, market updates and resources.
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| Yahoo Finance |
| The Yahoo search engine provides a finance portal with breaking news, market summaries and editor articles.
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