Doing business in the Balkans is attractive to entrepreneurs due to the diversity of tax regimes, relatively low operating costs and growing economic opportunities. This report examines key indicators of doing business in eight countries in the region: North Macedonia, Bulgaria, Serbia, Croatia, Montenegro, Kosovo, Albania, Bosnia and Herzegovina.
1. ease of doing business (Doing Business 2020)
Countries are ranked from best to worst:
North Macedonia – 17th place (leader in the region)
Serbia – 44th place
Montenegro – 50th place
Croatia – 51st place
Kosovo – 57th place
Bulgaria – 61st place
Albania – 82nd place
Bosnia and Herzegovina – 90th place
Conclusion: North Macedonia offers the best business environment in the region, while Bosnia and Albania are at the bottom of the list and need to improve their business climate.
2. Tax burden
Countries are ranked by their corporate tax rate (from lowest to highest):
Montenegro: income tax – 9%, VAT – 21%, dividend tax – 9%.
Bulgaria: income tax – 10%, VAT – 20%, dividend tax – 5%
North Macedonia: income tax – 10%, VAT – 18%, dividend tax – 10%
Kosovo: income tax – 10%, VAT – 18%, dividend tax – 0%
Bosnia and Herzegovina: corporate income tax – 10%, VAT – 17%, dividend tax – 5%.
Croatia: corporate income tax – 10%-18%, VAT – 25%, dividend tax – 10%.
Serbia: income tax – 15%, VAT – 20%, dividend tax – 15%
Albania: income tax – 15%, VAT – 20%, dividend tax – 8%.
Conclusion: Montenegro has the lowest tax burden on profits (9%), and Kosovo has no tax on dividends.
3. Registration of a company
State fee: €50-€150
Notary services: €30-€200
Bank deposit: Not required
Conclusion: The process of company incorporation in the Balkans is relatively inexpensive and fast, with minimal bank deposit requirements.
4. Average salary (€ per month)
Countries are ranked in descending order of average salary:
Croatia: €1,150
Bulgaria: €830
Serbia: €770
Montenegro: €730
Bosnia and Herzegovina: € 650
North Macedonia: €640
Albania: €520
Kosovo: €450
Conclusion: The highest salaries are in Croatia (€1,150) and Bulgaria (€830). Kosovo and Albania have the lowest rates, which reduces staffing costs but can make it difficult to find qualified specialists.
5. Office rent (€/m²/month)
The countries are ranked in descending order of rental costs:
Serbia (Belgrade): €15-€25
Croatia (Zagreb): €14-€24
Bosnia and Herzegovina (Sarajevo): €12-€22
Albania (Tirana): €10-€20
North Macedonia (Skopje): €10-€20
Montenegro (Podgorica): €10-€18
Kosovo (Pristina): €8-€15
Conclusion: The most affordable office rents are in Kosovo, while the highest are in Serbia and Croatia.
6. Utilities (office 85 m², €/month)
Countries are ranked in descending order of utility costs:
Croatia: €160
Serbia: €150
Montenegro: €140
Bosnia and Herzegovina: €130
Bulgaria: €130
North Macedonia: €125
Albania: €120
Kosovo: €110
Conclusion: Kosovo remains the most affordable region in terms of utility costs, with Croatia leading the way in terms of the highest costs.
7. Internet and communication (€/month)
The countries are ranked in descending order of internet costs:
Croatia: €35
Serbia: €30
Albania: €25
Bulgaria: €25
Kosovo: €20
Conclusion: The cheapest internet is in Kosovo (€20) and Bulgaria (€25). In Croatia, the cost of the Internet is higher than the regional average.
Final analysis:
To minimize taxes: Montenegro, Bulgaria, Kosovo.
For developed infrastructure and highly qualified employees: Croatia, Serbia.
To start with minimal costs: Kosovo, Albania.
For stability and access to the EU: Croatia and Bulgaria.
The Balkan region offers a variety of business opportunities. The choice of country depends on the specific priorities of the company: whether it is the tax burden, the cost of labor, or operating costs.
On November 20, 2024, Agromat LLC, a national chain of tile and sanitary ware stores, fully placed a public issue of three-year Series I bonds for UAH 100 million.
According to the National Securities and Stock Market Commission of Ukraine, it approved the placement report on December 23.
“The funds to be received as a result of the public offering will be used by the issuer to expand its retail network,” the prospectus said.
According to the prospectus, the nominal interest rate on the bonds, which have three-month coupons, is set at 16.35% p.a. for the first year of circulation, and 3-months for the next two years. UIRD +5.45 p.p. (Ukrainian index of rates on deposits of individuals UIRD3-month +5.45 percentage points (p.p.).
The bonds with a nominal value of UAH 1,000 were placed at par through the PFTS exchange, with state-owned Ukrgasbank acting as the investment manager. The maturity date is from November 16 to 18, 2027.
The nominal interest rate of the previous issue of series H, registered by the National Securities and Stock Market Commission on September 6 this year, was set at 16.5% per annum in the first year of circulation. The bonds were placed between September 30 and October 2, and are scheduled to mature on September 27-29, 2027.
Almost simultaneously, on September 25, 2024, Agromat started to redeem UAH 100 million of G series bonds issued in 2021, which allowed the NSSMC to cancel the registration of this issue on October 24.
“Agromat is engaged in the production and sale of ceramic tiles and sanitary ware, registered in 1993. The issuer operates in 25 outlets, including 10 in Kyiv, including a specialized shopping center for the sale of ceramic tiles and sanitary ware with a total area of over 8 thousand square meters.
According to the prospectus, the company’s co-owners with 28.65% each are CEO Serhiy Voitenko, Oksana Reva and Anatoliy Taday, another 10.05% belongs to Olga Bashota and 4% to Nadiya Rusheliuk.
The company’s revenue grew by 13.5% to UAH 1 billion 506.74 million in the first half of this year, while net profit decreased by 2.8 times to UAH 15.62 million.
According to the prospectus, in 2024, Agromat wanted to increase its net income to UAH 3 billion 263.07 million, in 2025 – to UAH 3 billion 552.53 million, and net profit – to UAH 124.32 million and UAH 135 million, respectively, with assets of approximately UAH 2.64 billion and EBITDA of UAH 297 million.
A large farmers’ protest by representatives of more than 20 agricultural associations and unions in Poland against the “harmful policies” of the European Union is scheduled for Friday, January 3, in Warsaw in front of the European Commission, farmer.pl reports.
“All agricultural organizations in our country will protest against the harmful policy of the European Union, against Ms. Ursula von der Leyen, who imposes such a tone of this policy that will force our farms to close,” Tomasz Obrzanski, chairman of the Solidarity Individual Farmers’ Association, told the publication.
According to him, the five demands of the protesters are directed against the dictates coming from Brussels. The slogan 5 x STOP refers to the agreement with Mercosur, the “green” course, imports from Ukraine, the destruction of Polish forests and hunting, and the destruction of the Polish economy.
The protest is scheduled for the afternoon. The farmers will gather at 14:00 at the EC Delegation in Warsaw. Then they will go to the National Theater, where a gala concert will be held to mark the beginning of Poland’s presidency of the Council of the European Union.
“We’ll start at 14:00 in front of the European Commission Delegation. Then we will march through the streets of Warsaw to the National Theater, where we will also perform on Senatorowa Street. And we will be there until the evening and will meet Ursula von der Leyen with dignity during the inauguration of the Polish presidency, which will officially begin that day at the National Theater,” explained Damian Murawiec, a representative of the Mass National Farmers’ Protest.
The protest was organized by the Agreement of Agricultural Organizations, which unites more than 20 trade unions and associations, including the NPZZ Individual Farmers Solidarity, the Farmers’ Trade Union Self-Defense, the National Association of Sugar Beet Producers, the National Council of Agricultural Chambers, the Farmers and Agricultural Organizations, the Mass National Farmers’ Protest, the Young Farmers’ Movement, the Institute of Agricultural Economics, and others.
The unshadowing of the alcoholic beverage market in 2024 brought an additional UAH 1.9 billion to the state budget of Ukraine compared to 2023, Danylo Hetmantsev, Chairman of the Verkhovna Rada Committee on Finance, Taxation and Customs Policy, said in a telegram channel.
He noted that the payment of excise tax on alcoholic beverages produced in the country increased by UAH 1.7 billion, or 24.4%, compared to 2021. Positive dynamics can also be seen in the growth of VAT tax efficiency: it is 6.88%, or 33.3% more than in pre-war 2021, when it was recorded at 5.16%.
At the same time, revenue from alcoholic beverages increased by 25% in November 2024 compared to January.
Hetmantsev noted that the President of Ukraine signed a bill on taxation of the alcohol market based on the capacity of the plants and expressed confidence that this would not allow the black market to be restored.
The head of the parliamentary committee called the increase in the capacity utilization of distilleries to 87% an important indicator of the de-shadowing of the alcoholic beverage market in 2024. This helped to produce 23.7 million dal of alcohol in 10 months of last year, which is 189% more than in peaceful 2021, when the distillery’s capacity utilization was 60%.
“This meant that all the residual capacity was directed to the bottle without excise duty,” Hetmantsev added.
According to him, the law No. 4014 adopted by the parliament is aimed at ensuring the full payment of excise tax by producers of ethyl alcohol and bioethanol.
“The law makes it economically unprofitable to conditionally “not use” the capacities. It is extremely important that the controllers do not turn a blind eye in the process of fulfilling the requirements of the law,” summarized the Chairman of the Parliamentary Financial Committee.
The current gas transit deal between Russia and Ukraine expires at the end of 2024, with Vladimir Putin having already said there was no time left to renew the contract. Will eastern EU members be hit the hardest?
Currently, Russian gas is still flowing through Ukraine’s pipeline network to the European Union (EU), generating revenue for Kremlin leader Vladimir Putin and funding his war against Ukraine. The Russian has claimed without Russian gas the bloc won’t be able to meet its energy needs.
For Ukraine, by contrast, the gas transit deal has always meant first and foremost filling Putin’s war chest, even though some of the revenue Russia gains from its exports via Ukraine stay in Kyiv as transit fees.
Now, as the year 2024 ends, Ukraine will not renew the gas transit agreement with Russia, as announced by President Volodymyr Zelenskyy on December 19 in Brussels. Ukraine will no longer allow Moscow to “earn additional billions” while continuing its aggression against the country.
Russian President Putin also confirmed the contract’s termination, telling reporters in a televised briefing on December 26 that a new contract was “impossible to conclude in 3-4 days.”
Putin laid the blame firmly on Ukraine for refusing to extend the agreement.
The end of the agreement, however, raises questions about gas supply in landlocked eastern EU countries, which cannot import liquefied natural gas (LNG) by sea. Austria, Hungary, and Slovakia still rely on Russian gas via Ukraine which is why the governments there are eager to continue purchasing Russian gas.
Russian gas: Mutually beneficial even during the Cold War
Before the Ukraine war, Russia was the world’s largest exporter of natural and Europe was Moscow’s most important market. European governments prioritized access to cheap energy over concerns about doing business with Putin.
The mutually beneficial relationship began more than 50 years ago, when the former Soviet Union needed funds and equipment to develop its Siberian gas fields. At the time, the western part of then still divided Germany sought affordable energy for its growing economy, and signed the so-called pipes-for-gas deal with Moscow, under which West German manufacturers supplied thousands of kilometers of pipes to transport Russian gas to Western Europe.
This energy relationship persists, as European importers are often locked into long-term contracts that are difficult to exit.
According to the Brussels-based think tank Bruegel
, EU fossil fuel imports from Russia amounted to about $1 billion (€958 million) per month at the end of 2023, down from $16 billion per month in early 2022. In 2023, Russia accounted for 15% of the EU’s total gas imports, trailing Norway (30%) and the US (19%), but ahead of North African countries (14%). Much of this Russian gas flows through pipelines via Ukraine and Turkey.
Major consumers include Austria, Slovakia, and Hungary. Additionally, countries like Spain, France, Belgium, and the Netherlands still import Russian LNG by tanker, some of which mixes with other gas sources in Europe’s pipeline network. As a result, it may even reach Germany, despite its efforts to forgo Russian gas.
Gas market upheaval triggers price spikes
Following Russia’s invasion of Ukraine in 2022, gas prices surged dramatically — at times by more than 20 times — forcing some European factories to cut production and many small businesses to close. Prices have since dropped but remain above pre-crisis levels, making energy-intensive industries, particularly in Germany, less competitive.
European consumers are also suffering from high energy prices, prompting many to reduce consumption amid a severe cost of living crisis. The additional expenses are a significant burden: Nearly 11% of EU citizens struggled to adequately heat their homes in 2023, according to the EU Commission
The termination of the Ukraine-Russia agreement is already factored into European gas market forecasts, according to an EU Commission analysis reported about by Bloomberg in mid-December.
EU isn’t desperate to keep gas route open
The EU is confident in its ability to secure alternative supplies.
“With more than 500 billion cubic meters of LNG produced each year globally, the replacement of around 14 billion cubic meters of Russian gas transiting via Ukraine should have a marginal impact on EU natural gas prices,” Bloomberg cites from the commission’s document, which is not yet public. “It can be considered that the end of the transit agreement has been internalized in the winter gas prices.”
The EU has long argued that member states still importing Russian gas via the Ukraine route — particularly Austria and Slovakia — could manage without these deliveries. Therefore, the EU commission said it would not enter negotiations to keep the route open.
According to the Commission, member states have been able to reduce their gas consumption by 18% since August 2022 compared to the five-year average. Moreover, the United States is expected to create new LNG capacities over the next two years, and these supplies could help the EU address potential disruptions.
“The most realistic scenario is that no Russian gas will flow through Ukraine anymore,” the EU commission said, adding the bloc was “well-prepared” for this outcome.
Mounting oncerns in Eastern Europe
Despite EU assurances, Hungary and Slovakia remain anxious about their gas supplies and their ongoing close ties to Russia. Hungarian Prime Minister Viktor Orban, for example, is seeking ways to maintain gas deliveries through Ukraine, even though the country’s current imports largely rely on the TurkStream pipeline.
Orban has floated unconventional ideas, such as purchasing Russian gas before it crosses into Ukraine. “We are now trying the trick … that what if the gas, by the time it enters the territory of Ukraine, would no longer be Russian but would be already in the ownership of the buyers,” Orban told a briefing, according to the Reuters news agency. “So the gas that enters Ukraine would no longer be Russian gas but it would be Hungarian gas.”
Slovakia has taken a more confrontational approach, threatening countermeasures against Ukraine. Prime Minister Robert Fico suggested halting emergency electricity supplies to Ukraine after January 1 if no agreement is reached. “If necessary, we will stop the electricity shipments that Ukraine needs during outages,” Fico said in a Facebook video.
In respons to the threat, Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy accused Fico of acting under Russian orders, stating on social media platform X that it appears Putin directed him to “open a second energy front against Ukraine.”
Fico remains one of the EU’s strongest opponents of military aid to Ukraine. During a surprise December visit to Moscow, Fico claimed Putin reaffirmed Russia’s willingness to continue supplying gas to Slovakia.
NNEGC Energoatom has received a license from Westinghouse to manufacture fuel rod shanks for nuclear fuel assemblies in Ukraine, the company said on Thursday.
Earlier, NNEGC completed the licensing of the production of heads for fuel cassettes.
“In 2025, we will start supplying both heads and shanks produced at the facilities of Energoatom, a Westinghouse company. That is, some of the elements required for the manufacture of fuel cassettes will be of Ukrainian production,” said NNEGC CEO Petro Kotin in the Energo Live program on the We-Ukraine TV channel.
As reported, cooperation between Energoatom and Westinghouse on the production of nuclear fuel began in the summer of 2018 when the American partner began qualifying one of NNEGC’s separate divisions as a supplier of fuel assemblies for the TVS-WR. In 2019-2020, work was organized to produce them for fuel assemblies of Westinghouse Electric Sweden.
In April 2022, the first batch of head components was manufactured and sent to Westinghouse for qualification.
In the summer of 2023, the Swedish regulator SSM granted an export license as part of the project to qualify NNEGC Energoatom as a supplier of nuclear fuel components manufactured in Ukraine using modern Western technologies.
