Construction booming amid credit decline

TIRANA, May 29 – Albania’s construction sector seems to have overcome its crisis-triggered impasse and is now back in almost full gear, although credit to the sector has been at almost the same levels for the past couple of years, giving rise to opposition allegations that drug proceeds are being laundered into the sector and that the national currency’s recent strengthening is mainly a result of high illegal euro inflows. Albania’s local government units issued 221 construction permits in the first quarter of this year, more than double compared to the same period last year, with an investment value worth…