Albania weathered the crisis well, UN report

TIRANA, June 21 – According to a newly released United Nations report, Albania weathered the global financial crisis better than many of its European neighbors, being one of few countries in Europe to record positive economic growth in 2009. However, the financial crisis appears to have caught up with Albania, as it registered a slowdown in GDP growth for 2009 resulting in a revised budget submitted to Parliament in the middle of 2010. The revisions included cuts of between 9 and 30 percent in certain areas of public investment and expenditure, said the third Annual Report of the One UN Programme in Albania.
Meanwhile, the Bank of Albania reported that remittances and foreign direct investment declined by 7 and 23 percent, respectively, for the first half of 2010 compared to the previous year. Nevertheless, according to the International Monetary Fund (IMF), real GDP growth picked up in 2010 to 3.5 percent, an increase above previous estimates. This growth was largely driven by robust industrial output, which surged by 38 percent, and exports that increased by 40 percent year-on-year. Albania also placed its first ever Eurobond in October 2010, and will continue to rely on commercial loans to finance its large, albeit contracting, external and fiscal deficits.
As a result of strong growth there was no major change in unemployment rates as a consequence of the global financial crisis. However, the national average remains high, at 13.1 percent. Other challenges include access of young women and men to employment and an increasing incidence of informal employment.
With the Millennium Development Goals targeting national averages, further attention will need to be paid to geographic and income disparities, as well as social inequalities. Despite the considerable progress made in reducing poverty, regional disparities remain a concern. For example, rural mountainous areas have experienced only a negligible decline in poverty and
Albania’s poorest remain concentrated in these areas. An analysis of regional disparities also concluded that sharper disparities exist within, rather than between, Albanian regions.