Prime Minister Sali Berisha described the mid-term budget for the next three as the Archimedes’ lever to turn Albania by 2017 into a developed country
Tirana Times
TIRANA, Feb. 2 – Government approved on Wednesday the 2011-2013 mid-term budget which will focus on investments to further develop the country’s infrastructure, tourism, education, health, agriculture and IT. Speaking at a government meeting, Prime Minister Sali Berisha described the mid-term budget for the next three as the “Archimedes’ lever to turn Albania by 2017 into a developed country walking to a new horizon for Albania and Albanians.”
Latest Eurostat data show Albania GDP per capita dropped to 2,661 euros in 2009, down from 2,784 in 2008, remaining better only compared to Kosovo which registered 1,790 euros compared to the EU 27 average of 23,500 euros.
The PM said that by 2013, when his government’s second consecutive term of office expires, the country’s main roads including the Arbri road linking Albania to Macedonia, the southern Albania route which continues with the Tirana-Elbasan new highway and secondary roads, will be ready.
Wages and pensions are also expected to undergo increases for the next three years “in order to make them bigger than two EU countries.” Extreme poverty, people living below 2 dollars per day, is also expected to be eradicated.
As far as macro-economic developments are concerned, the mid-term budget foresees to lower the country’s high public debt levels currently at 59.5 percent of the GDP to 54 percent by 2013. The GDP growth rate is also expected to increase to 6.2 percent, up from 5.5 percent in 2011 and 6.1 percent in 2012.
Inflation rate is expected to remain at 3 percent, meeting the central bank’s target band of 3 Ѡ1 percent. Meanwhile, the GDP per capital is expected to climb to 495,00 lek (4,950 dollars) by 2013, up from an expected 3,844 dollars in 2010. Meanwhile, the unemployment rate in the next three years is expected to drop to 9.8 percent, down from 13.6 in 2010. Government also approved the construction of a new modern stadium expected to be built in cooperation with the Albanian Football Association in the frame of the country’s 100th anniversary of independence in 2012.
