For four months, the assets of the Kosovo Pension Savings Fund (Trust) recorded a decline of over 103 million euros.
The President of the Kosovo Chamber of Commerce, Lulzim Rafuna, in an interview with Ekonomia Online, expressed concern about these developments, but said that the losses do not depend solely on the Trust’s internal management.
He mentioned the impact of international developments, especially the policies undertaken by the US with the imposition of new tariffs.
“It is worrying, it is not something that depends only on the Trust. These are also foreign exchanges, there are also investments in various organizations that have been affected due to the policies that came first from the White House, the policies of President Donald Trump. So it is not only Kosovo that has been affected or only the Trust, but other countries have also been affected with the hope that it will stabilize. It remains to be seen,” he said.
Rafuna suggested that the Government of Kosovo intervene with a strategic approach to the Trust’s funds, requiring a special law to orient these funds towards internal development investments, instead of relying on external markets.
He cited the construction of a gas-fired power plant as an example, describing it as a project for the country.
“When we are at the Trust, the Government of Kosovo should think of a plan, a law that these Trust funds with the same rate with full legal certainty, through a law passed in the Assembly of Kosovo, can take these funds and turn them into investments for concrete development projects and not allow them to be invested in foreign markets and be dependent on changes that occur in the stock markets. If we had invested them in projects, for example, it would have been one of the capital projects that Kosovo urgently needs, it would have been, for example, the construction of a gas-fired power plant, in the sense of turning coal into gas and for the production of electricity. A large part of these funds can be taken. In addition to public debt, they can also be taken from the Trust and invested,” he said.
Rafuna said that the security of citizens’ funds must be guaranteed, as they are private investments and every new model must guarantee a return on profit.
“The Trust or the citizens of Kosovo should be assured that these are private investments and through a law that their investment will turn into profit in the Trust, as happens with investments in various international organizations,” he told EO.
The Trust’s records for December 31, 2024, included 3.181.841.318 euros, while on April 16, 2025, this amount had dropped to 3.077.975.659 euros.
Despite the value of the loss, the Pension Savings Trust, through a Facebook post a few days ago, assessed that the situation was well managed.
“Since the beginning of 2025 until the reporting date, important stock market indices, such as the S&P 500 and NASDAQ, have decreased by -10.2% and -15%, respectively. Despite this, the effects on the portfolios of the Kosovo Pension Savings Fund (i.e. the Trust) were more controlled, due to the balanced structure and the diversification strategy that is continuously implemented… Of course, recently, valuations in financial markets have had greater volatility and negative results, but these results are a common, albeit rarer, phenomenon,” the Trust announced.
According to the analyst Shenoll Muharremi, this situation is directly related to developments in international stock markets, especially in the US, and is not a consequence of any wrong decision by local institutions. Muharremi wrote on Facebook that the Trust’s funds are invested conservatively and sustainably, away from high risks such as cryptocurrencies or speculative assets.
He adds that such declines are common and are usually followed by recoveries in the long term.
The recent decline, according to him, may be related to the negative performance of the US economy in the last quarter and the uncertainty created by trade tariffs imposed in the past.