Montenegro 2014
Yearbook 2014
Montenegro. During the year, the government received criticism from international lending institutions who considered that the country’s economy was threatened by plans to borrow just over a billion dollars. Montenegro population in 2020 is estimated at 628,077. The loan would finance the construction of a road that would link Serbia with the port city of Bar. When Montenegro signed an agreement with a Chinese construction company at the beginning of the year, the World Bank decided to withdraw $ 50 million in aid, money promised to reduce the country’s national debt. The World Bank considered that the road loan would put too much strain on the economy. In October, Montenegro settled with a Chinese bank on the billion loan, despite sharp criticism also from the International Monetary Fund (IMF), which claimed the loan threatened the country’s financial stability.
According to topb2bwebsites, in June, Customs seized 250 kg of cocaine hidden in a cargo of bananas. The seizure, which was reported to be the largest so far in the country, was made in Bar, which is along a well-known drug smuggling route en route to Western Europe. The EU pushed Montenegro to stop the smuggling, which is facilitated by the widespread corruption in the country.
Demography and economic geography
Southern European state, in the north-western sector of the Balkan peninsula. It borders with Croatia, Bosnia and Herzegovina, Serbia, Kosovo and Albania. Independent since May 2006, Montenegro recorded at the 2011 census a population of 620,029 residents, 63.5% residing in urban areas, especially in the capital, Podgorica (150,977 residents); in 2014, according to an estimate by UNDESA (United Nations Department of Economic and Social Affairs), the population was 621,542 residents. The ethnic composition of Montenegro is composed for the majority of Montenegrins (45%), followed by Serbs (28.7%), Bosnians (8.7%) and Albanians (5%). The religious (72% Orthodox, 20% Muslims, 3.4% Catholics) and linguistic panorama is also composite: the majority of the population is Serbian mother tongue (43%), and only 37% speaks the Montenegrin official as their first language. The dynamics of the population is rather stationary: in the period 2005-10 an annual increase of 0.1% was calculated, which fell to 0% in the period 2010-15.
Economic conditions. – The country’s economy has experienced sustained growth in the last decade and a good recovery (+ 3.2% in 2011), after the crisis of 2009 (−5.9%). GDP per capita with purchasing power parity (PPA) it is quite high ($ 15,219 in 2014), but the conditions of the population present some critical issues: one fifth is unemployed, 10% does not have access to health services and a small percentage higher is below the poverty line; the percentage of child labor is also high (12.9%, according to UNESCO estimates in 2012). The leading economic sector appears to be that of services (almost three quarters of GDP), while the industrial sector, based on the processing of aluminum and timber, has undergone a significant contraction in recent years, leading to an export crisis, with serious consequences on trade balance (negative for almost $ 2 billion in 2013). Tourist admissions are growing considerably (1,264,000 in 2012), attracted above all by the extensive view of the Adriatic coast (about 300 km). In 2012, negotiations began for the entry of Montenegro into the European Union, after joining the World Bank and the International Monetary Fund (IMF) in 2007 and the WTO (World Trade Organization) in 2011. Negotiations for access to the NATO Membership action plan started in 2009.
