TIRANA, June 4 – Albanian trade deficit registered 25.7 billion lek (257 million dollars) in April 2010 increasing by 8.9 percent compared to March 2010 and dropping by 1 percent compared to April 2009, according to the Institute of Statistics (INSTAT) foreign trade statistics. Exports in April totalled 12.5 billion lek, 14.1 percent less than the previous month but 60.5 percent up year-on-year.
Albania imported 38 billion lek of goods in April, 8.9 percent more than the previous month and 1 percent less than in April 2009.
Trade with European Union countries continued accounting for the major share of 65.2 percent of the total, with Italy and Greece as the main trade partners.
Italy remained Albania’s top trade partner with 52.2 percent of exports and 25.8 percent of total imports. Second came Greece with 5.5 percent of exports and 16.4 percent of imports.
INSTAT data showed Albanian exports registered an increase to France, Macedonia and China. Imports from Bulgaria, Greece and Kosovo also increased.
Compared to March 2010, the export of construction materials and metals rose by 41.7 percent, leather products by 10 percent and chemical and plastic products by 7 percent.
A sharp fall was registered in the export of mineral, fuel and electricity group whose export in April dropped by 41.5 percent.
Meanwhile, imports of leather, mineral, fuel, electricity, chemical and plastic products increased from 7.5 to 11 percent.
The import of excise goods in April reached 5.5 billion lek (55 million dollars), increasing by 43 percent and accounting for 14.6 percent of the total imports. Fuel is the main excise good in Albania with imports accounting for 66.7 percent of the total excise goods.
Businesses continue lowering investments
Import of machinery, equipment and spare part fell by 6.8 percent last April, a signal which shows businesses are spending less on investments in new technology.
The latest report by the Bank of Albania shows that Albanian companies have drastically lowered their investments into the business, adopting a wait and see attitude during the economic crisis.
More than 64 percent of Albanian businesses have not made any investment in six months, according to the latest survey of the Bank of Albania
The central bank’s report shows that during the first quarter of 2010, imports of capital goods, machinery and equipment used for investment had dropped by 22 percent compared to the same period last year.
