TIRANA, Oct. 25 – Albanian economy experts have calculated 16,000 lek (€115) per capita as the subsistence level in Albania, an indicator which Albania has been lacking for years, proves that current minimum wages and pensions are too small to lead a decent life for hundreds of thousands of workers and pensioners.
The subsistence level calculated by experts of the Albanian Center for Economic Research comes as an initiative by Ombudsman Igli Totozani whose annual calls on the Albanian government to calculate a standard of living that provides only the bare necessities of life have been turned down by government officials in the past five years.
Calculations showed the subsistence level in 2015 was at 16,000 lek a month per person, of which 7,100 lek (€51) on food expenditure and 8,900 lek(€64) in non-food spending.
“The amount of subsistence level makes up even the basis on which wages, social pensions, financial assistance, disability allowances and unemployment benefits should be calculated, understandably by making the necessary arrangements regarding the number of family members, the number of people employed in a household, members of and below working age, the assets under the households’ possession etc.,” Ombudsman Totozani told a press conference this week.
“Albania’s subsistence level of 16,000 lek/a month fluctuates at almost the same levels compared with other Western Balkans countries, especially Serbia and Macedonia. The similarity with regional countries increased the credibility of the amount calculated in this study,” he adds.
According to the Ombudsman, the benefits Albanian pensioners, people with disabilities and the jobless receive are lower compared to the current calculated subsistence level.
“When comparing the subsistence level with the minimum wage, the minimum pension and the social pension, the financial assistance, the unemployment and disability benefits, it is easily identifiable that these payments are below the subsistence level,” says Totozani.
The Ombudsman has recommended the Albanian Parliament and the government to undertake legal changes on setting the subsistence level. The changes involve amending the current Labour Code, and including state statistical institute, INSTAT, in the calculation of the subsistence level and indexing the current low levels of financial benefits for people in need.
“We are aware that some standards cannot be achieved either in a single day or year, but at least the government has to calculate the subsistence level and officially announce its level so that its social development policies are oriented toward making the life of its poorer and needier citizens easier,” says the Ombudsman.
An average family of four (3.8 people) in Albania spent 69,000 lek (€485) a month in 2014, up 5.6 percent compared to 2009, according to an INSTAT survey measuring the budgets of some 7,800 households nationwide.
Almost half of the Albanian population lives on less than $5 a day, worse than almost all regional countries, according to another World Bank report.
In its latest South East Europe Regular Economic Report, the World Bank says Albania’s poverty, measured against the regional standardized benchmark of US$5 a day (in 2005 purchasing power parity) was down by 1.5 percent to 46.2 percent of the population in 2016.
The fraction of the population whose real per capita monthly consumption is below Lek 4,891 (€34.6, USD 46) increased from 12.4 percent in 2008 to 14.3 percent in 2012, according to a survey measuring the impacts of the global financial crisis in Albania, where exports, migrant remittances and the key construction sector have suffered a lot since 2009.
