INSTAT delays quarterly retail sales, GDP publications

TIRANA, Nov. 9 – Busy with the population and housing census, Albania’s Institute of Statistics has delayed the publication of two important indicators: retail sales and the GDP for the second quarter of 2011 by two months and one month respectively.
INSTAT has officially reacted only to the GDP publication which it says has been delayed for lack of information by the country’s tax office. No clarification has been made about the delay of the retail sales.
According to INSTAT’s official calendar of publications, the retail sales for the second quarter of 2011 should have been published on Sept. 8, while the GDP for the same period on Sept. 30.
Latest INSTAT data show retail sales in the first quarter of 2011 dropped by 5.9 percent year-on-year and 12.3 percent compared to the final quarter of 2010. Meanwhile, latest INSTAT data show the Albanian economy grew by 3.4 percent in the first quarter of 2011 year-on-year with transport, industry, construction and trade as the key sectors contributing to the growth
In its latest country report on Albania, the International Monetary Fund says that despite progress INSTAT still faces problems with respect to the reliability of the annual and quarterly national account estimates. In particular, the consistency between quarterly and annual data has not yet been secured.
The quality of source data also remains a major concern. “Collection, processing and use of the data from all three main sources, namely, the annual structural business survey, the financial statements of enterprises, and VAT returns to the tax authorities, need to be improved,” says the IMF.