02281nam a22004097u 4500 pwiiw7279 OSt 20260516120037.0 250401t2025 au ||||| |||| 00| ||eng d OSt eng F21 F35 H81 jelc Jovanović, Branimir The EU’s and China’s grants and loans in the Western Balkans Wien : Wiener Institut für Internationale Wirtschaftsvergleiche (wiiw), 2025. 37 S., 10 Tables and 7 Figures, 30cm. wiiw Policy Notes and Reports 92 This note examines the grants and loans provided by the European Union (EU) and China to the Western Balkan economies. The EU remains dominant in grant funding, with annual Instrument for Pre-accession Assistance (IPA) grants averaging 0.8% of the region’s GDP, far above the 0.02% of GDP from Chinese grants. In terms of loans, however, China has nearly caught up with the EU. On an annual basis, the EU has committed loans equal to approximately 1.5% of the region’s GDP, while China has provided loans in the amount of 1.2%. Notably, in Serbia, China’s loan portfolio now exceeds the size of the EU’s. EU loans are cheaper and more transparent but come with stricter conditions for implementation and requirements for institutional reforms. In contrast, Chinese loans are more flexible and quicker to implement, making them appealing to Western Balkan politicians. However, this flexibility comes at a cost, as Chinese loans are significantly more susceptible to corruption, often deliver questionable quality, and have been linked to various drawbacks, such as workers’ rights violations and environmental degradation. EU China Western Balkans grants loans investment Albania Bosnia and Herzegovina Kosovo Montenegro North Macedonia Serbia Western Balkans Macroeconomic Analysis and Policy Stojadinović, Sonja 92 WIIW0000092 wiiw Policy Notes and Reports https://wiiw.ac.at/p-7279.html P 9113 9113 0 0 0 0 BIB BIB 1 2025-04-01 pwiiw7279 0 92 1000010007279 2025-04-01 00:00:00 2025-04-07 P