Association claims 60% of Albanians living below poverty line

TIRANA, Oct. 24 – Despite extreme poverty rates officially reported to have dropped to 12.4 percent, and Albania becoming an upper-middle income country since 2008, associations claim that the rising cost of living has put around 60 percent of the Albanian population below the poverty line. This is confirmed by a new study by the Demographic Association which says the minimum living standard per capita is at 15,000 lek (150 dollars) nearly three times more than government claims. “Based on our recalculations, it figures that the minimum living standard per capita is around 15,000 lek. People earning less than this threshold are considered poor and based on our data it results that nearly 60 percent of the population lives below the poverty line,” Ilia Telo, the head of the Demographic Association told VoA in the local Albanian service. According to him, poverty rates in Albania are three times higher than in the European Union where the country aspires integration. Telo says the Albanian government spends three times less against poverty, with 10 percent of the GDP dedicated to poverty mainly in pensions and assistance while EU member countries award 27 percent of their GDP. “The first issue is that the state should determine the minimum living standard, which has not been done up to now. This indicator should be determined by a group of experts including dietitians, sociologists and economists. This must be accepted and announced, it has to be recognized by government and parliament and then a working programme should be drafted to gradually reduce poverty,” said Telo. Eglantina Gjermeni, a sociologist and MP of the opposition Socialist Party says the economic growth and poverty reduction the government claims are not true as there has been no increase in employment rates. “The number of families receiving financial assistance has risen. In 2010 there were 98,000 families and this figure has risen by another 4,000 households. The financial assistance is only at 3,500 lek a month and think about what a household can do with 35t dollars a month,” says Gjermeni. Prime Minister Sali Berisha has often emphasized that by the end of 2011 there won’t be citizens with daily income of less than 1.25 dollars, which is the World Bank definition on extreme poverty. “It’s not fair that some people wash themselves in golden baths while others ‘count’ their morsels. This is not the society we want and does not serve to social cohesion,” added the Prime Minister. The latest figures on poverty rates in Albania date back to 2009, when a study conducted jointly by a team of INSTAT, the UNDP and the World Bank found that Albania continued to witness significant reduction in poverty between 2005 and 2008. Results for 2008 indicate that 12.4 percent of the population was poor compared to 18.5 percent in 2005 and 25.4 percent in 2002. This means that about 200,000 people out of the roughly 575,000 poor in 2005 have been lifted out of poverty between 2005 and 2008 alone. INSTAT data show the average state pension stands at 12,000 lek, while village pensions at 5,650 lek. Latest INSTAT data show Albania’s official unemployment rate dropped to 13.26 percent in the second quarter of 2011, down from 13.78 during the same period in 2010 and 13.43 percent in the first quarter of 2011. Only 6 percent of the total registered jobless people benefited from unemployment assistance of 6,565 lek (65 USD). Labor unions and the opposition claim the real unemployment rate is at least twice as high as what state institutions like INSTAT and the government officially declare. Latest Eurostat data show Albania’s GDP per capita dropped to 2,661 Euros in 2009, down from 2,784 in 2008, remaining better only compared to Kosovo which registered 1,790 Euros. Bosnia and Herzegovina, which is also benefiting from visa free travel in the Schengen area, had a GDP per capita at 3,192 Euros compared to the EU 27 average of 23,500 Euros.