Customs revenues continue to suffer from the economic crisis

TIRANA, August 11ؔhe global economic crisis continues to reflect itself in Albania with revenues from Albanian customs being well below the projected numbers. According to official data from Customs Office, revenues collected by this institution during the January-July period of 2009 were only 88% of the projected plan. That translates in a 55 million euro deficit.
Gasoline imports, which make up for 25% of customs revenue, are the ones most hit according to the data, accounting for half of the declared deficit. Albania has imported 180 thousand tonnes of gasoline in 2009, 8000 tonnes more than the same period a year ago, however, a considerable drop in gasoline prices this year has caused revenues from this products to drop significantly. Custom revenues from gasoline imports summed up to 12.3 billion Lek in 2008, while the latest data reports an income of only 10.6 billion Lek in 2009, or a 14% drop, all due to global gasoline prices.
A second factor to decreasing customs revenues is a general shrink in trade volume, where revenues from imports have registered a 5 billion Lek loss in the first half of 2009.
Overall, data from the Customs Office make for a good telling of economic activity in the country and the impacts it receive from the global market.