IMF: Global crisis curbed Albania’s expected growth by 21%

TIRANA, Oct. 22 – The global crisis has affected Albania’s growth by around 21 percent of the GDP in the past five years, says the International Monetary Fund in its latest report on Southeastern Europe.
Just before the onset of the global crisis in 2008, the IMF expected the Albanian economy to grow by a total of 35.1 percent of the GDP, but in fact grew by only 13.9 percent in the 2008-2013 period, resulting in -21.2 percent or around 2 billion Euros less. However, Albania ranks as one of the least affected by the global crisis in the group of central, Eastern and South eastern countries.
Albania’s poverty rate has increased by 2 percent or around 29,000 people in the past four years as the country’s GDP growth rate dropped to an average of 3 percent down from 6 percent annually in the pre-crisis years. The results are confirmed in a recent living standard measurement survey conducted by Albania’s state Institute of Statistics and the World Bank.
Albania enjoyed an average annual growth rate of 6 percent from 2003 to 2008 and was one of the few countries to register positive growth of 3.3 percent in 2009 in the outbreak of the global crisis. According to INSTAT, the 2010 growth was at 3.9 percent, down from 7.5 percent in 2008. Back in 2011, the Albanian economy grew by 3.1 percent, remaining at the same moderate growth rates for the third year in a row while in 2012 the GDP slowed down to 1.6 percent. Despite having preserved an annual moderate 3 percent growth rate from 2009 to 2011, the Albanian economy lags behind almost every EU aspirant in GDP per capita and purchasing power indicators.