(Adds comments on inflation, growth, deficit, debt)
LONDON, Nov 24 (Reuters) - Kosovo expects to get full membership of multilateral lender the European Bank for Reconstruction and Development by the start of next year, boosting inflows of capital, Central Bank Governor Hashim Rexhepi said on Tuesday.
"We hope that by the end of this year or the beginning of next year, we will be getting full membership of the EBRD (...) That will help very much with the private sector in Kosovo," he told a Kosovo investment forum
Kosovo is negotiating with the International Monetary Fund for a loan of $200 to $300 million and hopes to conclude a deal soon.
The country, which has an unemployment rate of 40 percent, has been suffering from falling prices.
"This year we have deflation in Kosovo in the region of 3 percent. In future years we will have inflation maybe around 1 percent," Rexhepi told the conference.
He later told Reuters on the sidelines of the conference that a recent pick-up in prices meant annual inflation could reach 1 percent by the end of 2009.
GDP growth should also show a slight pick-up over the next few years, Rexhepi told Reuters.
"We have real growth (this year) above 4 percent, our expectation for the next four years is that we can manage to have a minimum 4.5 percent economic growth."
Kosovo declared independence from Serbia in 2008 and joined the International Monetary Fund and the World Bank in June.
Since the end of a 1998-99 conflict, Kosovo has received around 3 billion euros in aid and is expecting to receive another billion euros from international donors by 2011.
Kosovo is likely to finish the year with a budget deficit of 2 percent, and the country, which uses the euro currency, may start to issue domestic debt next year, Rexhepi said.
"We approved a law on public debt, technically we will be ready to start in the first half of the year."
(Reporting by Carolyn Cohn; Editing by Ron Askew)
((carolyn.cohn@reuters.com; Reuters Messaging carolyn.cohn.reuters.com@reuters.net; +44 207 542 6320))