TIRANA, Jan 21, 2008 — The European Bank for Reconstruction and Development (EBRD) said growth in the EBRD region was likely to fall sharply in 2009 in the face of a global economic slowdown and financial market turbulence and it urged the countries where it invests to place a high priority on the stabilization of their banking systems.
The EBRD’s Transition Report 2008, which tracks the economic performance and progress on reforms across EBRD countries, predicted overall growth would fall to 6.3 per cent in 2008 from 7.5 per cent in 2007 and drop below 2 per cent in 2009.
Growth in Albania is expected to increase to 6.1 percent in 2008 from 6 percent in 2007. In 2009, growth of around 4 percent is expected.
Ivo Germann, EBRD Principal Economist for Albania, said: “Albania is continuing to make good progress on a number of fronts, but more efforts are needed to improve the business environment and upgrade the quality of infrastructure if the impressive growth of recent years is to be maintained in the future.”
Albanian Finance Minister Ridvan Bode did not agree with the bank’s growth figure for 2009. Bode said they expected the 2009 GDP growth to be between 7-8 percent.
The International Monetary Fund has been projecting a six percent GDP growth for Albania, local media reported. Experts on the other hand say that reduced purchasing power of citizens will slow down the country’s economic growth.
All international institutions do not agree with Tirana’s figures for the 2008 GDP growth of 9.9 percent, which are figures repeatedly used by Prime Minister Sali Berisha based on the Institute of Statistics.
Bode was seen as at least formally ‘clashing’ with his premier when he mentioned that growth could be between 6-7 percent this year.
