TIRANA, Feb. 11 – Declining interest rates and a Euro 5 million theft scandal which led to the arrest and sacking of several central bank officials in September 2014, including former governor Ardian Fullani, have considerably reduced the profits the Bank of Albania transfers to the state budget.
Data published by the Finance Ministry shows the transfer of profit by the central bank dropped to 1.95 billion lek (Euro 13.6 million) in 2014, down 55 percent compared to 2013 when the BoA contributed with 4.3 billion lek (Euro 30 million) to the state budget.
Prospects for the next three years appear more pessimistic as the profit the central bank transfers is expected to drop by ten times compared to its average of 5.2 billion lek (Euro 36.4 million) in the 2011-2013 period.
In its 2016-2018 macroeconomic framework, the Albanian government expects the transfer of profit from the central bank to drop to a record low of only 62 million lek (Euro 434,000) in 2015, 37 million lek in 2016 (Euro 259,000) in 2016, before recovering to 843 million lek (Euro 5.9 million) in 2017 and 1.5 billion lek (Euro 10.5 million) in 2018.
The Bank of Albania argues the drastic cut in its profits with the sharp cut in interest rates as the key interest rate has been reduced to a historic low of 2 percent, down from 5.25 percent until August 2011.
