Underperforming revenue, stronger national currency trigger mid-year budget cut

TIRANA, July 27 – Underperforming revenue in the first half of this year has forced the Albanian government to undertake a mid-year budget cut in what has become a common practice to handle overoptimistic expectations when drafting budgets over the past quarter of a century of transition to democracy and a market economy. The budget cut is apparently triggered by sluggish consumption and a strong recovery of the Albanian national currency against Europe’s single currency with a series of negative effects for Albania’s exporters, local producers facing tougher competition from cheaper imports and sizeable Euro-denominated savings and migrant remittances. In…