TIRANA, July 9 – Albania is closely watching developments in its southern neighbor, where more than half a million ethnic Albanian migrants reside, following a ‘no’ vote in last weekend’s referendum on whether Greece should accept anymore creditor-mandated austerity.
With negotiations still in limbo, there are worries about the crisis effects on Balkan countries where there are a lot of Greek investments, including in the banking sector.
Millions of people in Serbia, Albania, Bulgaria, Macedonia and Romania have their deposits in Greek bank subsidiaries in their own countries, putting the Balkans on the front line in the Greek crisis.
Albanian officials have said the Greek-owned banks are totally safe because they have been forced to obey local rules.
Many Balkan states are preventing the local bank subsidiaries from sending money back to the Greek parent companies.
Greece’s limits on cash withdrawals have not extended to subsidiaries in the Balkans.
Three out of 16 commercial banks operating in Albania are Greek-owned. But Albanian authorities have assured depositors they have nothing to fear as they are local banks.
The experts’ biggest worry is about the medium-term effects on the economy and on Albania’s trade exchanges with Greece.
More trouble in Greece would cause Albania’s economic growth to fall, experts said.
Albania’s imported goods from Greece totaled 5.4 billion lek ($43 million) during the first five months this year, a figure similar to the same period last year.
Greece is a preferred source in Albania for food in particular, according to the Albanian National Institute of Statistics.
Greece is Albania’s second partner for trade in food, accounting for 15 percent of the total. Italy is the first country in that list with 19 percent of total food imports, ahead of Serbia with 8 percent of the total.
Greece is Albania’s third import partner with 8.3 percent of the total, after Italy and China.
