Montenegro and Albania Show Highest Economic Growth in the Balkans
BalkanTravellers.com
In a period of slower GDP growth in Western Europe, the IMF has optimistic expectations for Albania’s economic development, according to the Albanian newspaper Gazeta Shqiptare.
The country’s projected economic growth, at 6 per cent, puts it only after Montenegro, whose economy is expected to grow by 7.2 per cent by the end of the year. The two countries are followed by Bulgaria and Bosnia and Herzegovina, each with a 5.5 per cent projected economic growth, Romania – 5.4 per cent, Macedonia – 5 per cent, Croatia – 4.2 per cent and Serbia – 4 per cent.
As a whole, the economic growth in the region for 2008 is higher than the previous year. According to the publication, EU membership and the of the regional economies’ opening up to globalising market have increased the competition the countries have to face but at the same time given them new opportunities for development.
Although it has one of the highest growth rates in the region, Gazeta Shqiptare wrote, Albania still has the lowest GDP. As BalkanTravellers.com reported – despite a still underdeveloped infrastructure, the country is attracting international investments, especially in real estate, due to its growing economic and political stability.
Epicure
Balkans
Bulgaria’s Exclusive Ownership of Shopska Salad Challenged
11 August 2009 | The ownership of shopska salad – considered by Bulgarians as one of the few dishes that is truly their own, was challenged by a Serbian publication claiming that the salad is in fact a pan-Slavic one.
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Curiosity Chest
Serbia
The Student Cultural Centre in Belgrade, Serbia
Throughout the ups and downs in Serbia’s recent history, the Student Cultural Centre (SKC) has always been a safe haven for city artists, a place to go to remove themselves from the everyday and express themselves freely. Full Story
Useful Reads
Balkans
Through Another Europe (2009) | Edited by Andrew Hammond
When Henry Blount journeyed through Bosnia in the 1630s, two things struck him: the purity of the water and the great height of the Bosnians, which, he noted, “made me suppose them the offspring of those old Germans noted by Tacitus and Caesar for their huge size.”
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Music
Serbia
EXIT Festival in Novi Sad, Serbia: Overnight Exile in the Fortress
Located roughly in the middle between Bulgaria's Black Sea and Croatia’s Adriatic coasts, which are both shaken by high-energy rock parties each July, Novi Sad hosts one of the most significant summer festivals on the Balkans – EXIT. As fans from all parts of the region start to gather in the town for for this year’s event, scheduled to take place between July 10 and 13, Mila Popova recounts about the time she spent at the festival last summer.
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Photogalleries
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A Perfect Shot
In Homo Urbanus Europeanus, exhibited May 9-24 in front of the National Theatre in Sofia, Jean-Marc Caracci presents his photographs of people in the urban environment of European capitals.
RED&WHITE SOFIA. On the 1st of March Bulgarians say goodbye to the winter. They buy each other red&white threads to carry around until they see a stork and spring can begin. Photography by Lode Desmet
BULGARIA D'OR: The Bulgarian countryside, patinated with the noble golden dust of the autumn. Photographs by Lode Desmet
360 degrees Bulgaria, an exhibition by photographer Alexandar Ivanov, is on display at the Sea Garden in Varna until August 28. It will be shown at Plovdiv’s Central Square from Sept 5.
The exhibition Photographs of a Trip Through Bulgaria by Hungarian photographer András Balla can be seen in Sofia's Hungarian Cultural Institute, at Aksakov 16 Street, until August 22
Instant Spring in Sofia | Photographs by Lode Desmet
Off-the-season Beauty of Bulgaria's Black Sea Coast | Photographs by Adelina Iliev
Bulgaria's Northern Black Sea Coast
Photographs by Albena Shkodrova
excellent smugs