TIRANA, May 10 – Public debt at a soaring 72 percent of the GDP and the declining population have sharply increased Albania’s per capita debt in the past five years.
Data published by Open Data research centre show the per capita debt, used as a measure of the state’s indebtedness, rose by 50 percent during the past five years as public debt climbed by 10 percent of the GDP reaching more than 1 trillion lek (€7.5 billion).
The per capita debt is expected to increase to 376,000 lek (€2,700) in 2016, up from a mere 245,151 lek (€1,746) in 2010 as the debt stock rose by 50 percent and the population declined by 1.2 percent to 2.88 million during 2010-2016, the study showed.
Immigration was one of the major reasons for the decline in Albania’s population between 2001 and 2011 when 481,000 Albanians left the country. The latest census showed Albania’s resident population shrank by 8 percent to 2.82 million people in 2011 compared to a decade ago.
The Albanian government has set a 45 percent ceiling on public debt, currently hovering at a record 70 percent of the GDP and considered a key risk to the country’s macro-economic stability, according to a recent draft law.
While no timeline has been set, bringing public debt to 45 percent of the GDP could take Albania more than a decade of tight measures.
