Bosnia in Statistical Data

The State as a Neglected Child

What is Bosnia & Herzegovina like two years after the war? There are slightly more of us here, and yet less than before the war. We are writing plenty of letters and we talk on the phone. We suffer mostly of infections of upper respiratory organs, hypertension and somatic disorders. We have more money than we don't, although statistical data show otherwise. While some are still receiving humanitarian aid, others wear clothes designed by famous world designers. Are we on the road to capitalism? At the moment, Bosnia reminds mostly of a neglected child

AIM Sarajevo, 26 January, 1998

When all pieces of the data provided by the Statistical Institute of B&H are put together, the picture which one gets is difficult to decode. For example, salaries and cost of living: an average Bosnian received 285.82 convertible marks (ratio with the German mark 1:1) a month. The highest average salary is paid in Bihac and it amounts to 373 convertible marks (KM). The lowest is in Zenica and amounts to 184 KM. Sarajevans on the average receive 355 KM, and the citizens of Tuzla 318. And while in a large number of enterprises employees are paying minimum pays of 85 KM, for which taxes are paid to the state, in numerous places the customary salaries are over 2,000 KM. By the way, prewar average salaries in Bosnia & Herzegovina amounted to 660 German marks. The highest pays according to public data are allegedly paid in the state administration and compulsory pension insurance, but also in banks and non-economic activities...

How many people receive salaries? Data of the Statistical Institute of B&H say that the total number of employed persons in November last year amounted to 340,504. Out of this number, 89,287 are on forced leave. At the same time there are 216,790 persons looking for a job as registered by the employment office of the B&H Federation. There are so few registered vacancies, however, that there is exactly 196 workers per one vacancy.

Therefore, if you were an average Sarajevan in December last year, you had an average of 355 KM every first day of the month. The consumer basket with just 16 fundamental food products cost 464 KM in the same month. How could you, then, with your home budget in the red, visit almost every day ten odd new coffee bars downtown and several exclusive shops selling more than expensive wardrobe? For example, a pair of velvet jeans with Versacci's trademark on the pocket, cost at least 200 KM, and they are sold without any problem?! By the way, retail prices have gone up in December by 13.6 per cent in relation to the same month in 1996. In December 1997, cost of food, clothing and shoes, education and culture, home equipment, hygiene and health preservation, as well as transportation, have all gone up.

Catering, tourism and transportation are simply flourishing in B&H. Statisticians say that in B&H in 1997 in relation to 1996, 74 per cent more kilometres have been covered in passenger transportation and 15 per cent more passengers have been transported. The Bosnians have written more (they wrote as many as 16,095 letters), they talked 19 per cent more on the phone than in 1996. They made 17,241,000 calls on mobile phones only in November. It might be needeless to say, but just in case, let us add the information that workers of the PTT B&H have salaries above the average. As concerning transportation, the railway still stands where it stood. Trains have not started yet in most of B&H. The rest operates.

In 1997, the industries have somewhat progressed. Certain capacities have been formed, production was restructured, new technology is used. Production has increased in December by 9.5 per cent, and in relation to the whole year by 35.1 per cent. Electric power industry and coal production are the most productive. Positive trends are also felt in forestry, construction, agriculture. In comparison with the prewar 1991, however, one sees that industrial production has gone down by as much as 72.5 per cent. The situation in agriculture is slightly better. Total area sowed in autumn is by 62.8 per cent smaller than in 1991. But, what is more crushing is that it is at the same time smaller than in 1996 by 8.9 per cent. Does that mean that food is no problem for us?

How do the Bosnians make a profit? They are losing money on export, no less than 14 to one. In other words, for the value of one dollar they export, 14 are imported. In 1997, mostly industrial and mining products were exported, and unbelievable for this country, but that is what the statistical data of the Institute say, the goods that were imported the most were - industrial and mining products! Food ranks second. They say that literally everything is imported into Bosnia, so that it is impossible to make a list of all the such products. Countries of import are Croatia, Slovenia and Italy, which blaze the trail, all the way to Bermudas, Macao, Nigeria, Burundi and Uganda!?

But, not only the foreigners benefit from us, we also benefit from them. Tourists are rarely seen in B&H, but statisticians nevertheless counted 146,876 tourists on the territory of the Federation, 71,290 out of which were foreigners. There were five tourists from Montenegro, 33 from Albania, 70 from China, 65 from Iceland. Most of the foreigners were from Croatia and Italy. Tourism made a profit of 2,794,026 KM.

And finally, how many newcomers are there and how many have left? Birth rate is growing. Slightly but significantly. In 1997, 28,911 babies were born, 15,021 of which were sons. There were 13,273 new marriages; 14,410 people died, 55 of them by violent death only in November. The number of divorces increased to 465, 78 were registered in November alone. The biggest number of divorces happened in Sarajevo municipality Novi Grad, Cazin ranks second, then Fojnica and Sanski Most. Like in the case of the number of born babies, there were more man than women among those who died. Population growth still is not satisfactory, but it is reasonable due to the low death rate. The main causes of death among the population of F B&H last year were diseases of the circulatory system, malignant neoplasms, injuries and poisoning, diseases of the respiratory system. On the average there are 6.4 employed health workers per one thousand inhabitants.

Should things continue at this rate, B&H could reach the prewar standard in 50 years, which, by the way, was not too high, either. Nevertheless, there are some more optimistic data. All the universities on the territory of the Federation are working although they do not have a sufficient number of professors. The number of students is increasing. This would really be promising if the number of young people who are leaving Bosnia & Herzegovina were not also increasing. How many inhabitants Bosnia & Herzegovina really has, how many have left, how many have returned, nobody really knows.

NIDZARA AHMETASEVIC

(AIM Sarajevo)