Every crisis is an opportunity. This life philosophy is often used in business. We asked whether and in what way the current crisis in the Middle East is an opportunity for both citizens and the state.
Economic analyst Goran Kovačević says that buying apartments has been profitable so far, but he believes that this has come to an end. The war in the Middle East, he says, is causing complete disruption to the world market, which is why he sees buying land, especially agricultural land, as the best investment.
"All steps are pointing towards the crisis definitely deepening; in that case, food production will be key. Montenegro is rich in water, or rather water resources, so, in the end, we will return to the initial situation - meaning water and food, what we absolutely need, and everything else will be on a different plane. I think time will quickly show that I am right, for the simple reason that we import almost all our food, and with the increase in the price of energy, the price of food will increase drastically, because the price of transportation is directly related to the price of food itself," said Kovačević.
At this point, the smartest thing would be to end the war in Iran, believes analyst Davor Dokić.
"It's terribly thankless in a situation when energy prices are jumping, meaning the volatility on the stock market is terribly high and you have price changes from minute to minute. It's very difficult to invest money in a project in such an uncertain situation," said Dokić.
Unlike Kovačević, Dokić believes that the world cannot tolerate this war for long and expects it to end soon. In the meantime, he says, the state could also benefit through tourism.
"Since the redirection of some tourists who spent their summers in elite destinations such as Dubai, Abu Dhabi, in the United Arab Emirates, I think that some of these tourists could come to us, and Israelis, who have recently represented a significant group of guests for us, I think that once the war ends, they will continue to come to Montenegro," said Dokić.
According to Kovačević, the state should also turn to food production. In addition, I think the government should definitely, and should have done this earlier, form commodity reserves again.
To protect their money, many are considering or have already invested in gold or other precious metals, cryptocurrencies, or securities. Our interviewees commented on this as follows:
"We see that in Montenegro there is currently a very large offer for investing in gold, which is certainly a good way to secure some surplus funds. However, the problem is that you do not have any profit," says Kovačević.
"Everyone tries to protect their capital in a way they think is good. Large investors in crisis situations generally flee to gold. Cryptocurrencies have not yet been sufficiently explored; however, someone will take a risk and consciously take that risk, buying cryptocurrencies and hoping to make a good profit. Still others invest in stocks. You know that with the start of the conflict in Iran, there was a major drop in stocks on the stock exchange. Someone goes to the stock exchange and buys shares of the best companies," said Dokić.
Since the beginning of the war in Iran, unlike gold, which has lost a fifth of its value, Bitcoin has been growing, while the global securities market has been oscillating daily.
