Despite the fact that the political criteria take almost all the attention of the media, the report on Albania also gives interesting insights on the country’s preparedness for economic criteria.
The report points out that the GDP growth slowed down due to lower hydroelectric power production, however other sectors performed well and unemployment continued to decrease.
Other items included in the report refer to the growth in exports and the decline in public-debt-to-GDP ratio which still remained high during the reporting period. “Banks continued reducing the number of non‑performing loans and lending to private sector picked up. Steps towards developing the financial market have been taken, but financial intermediation remained low. The implementation of comprehensive justice reform advanced well, but has not yet improved the legal certainty for business. The COVID-19 pandemic has exacerbated the structural weaknesses and its economic fall-out erases some of the progress,”- the report outlines.
Albania needs to fulfill certain criteria on the economy side in order to increase its capacity of coping with competitive pressure and market forces within the Union. Infrastructure on energy, transport and digital communication, as well as educational outcomes have improved, but significant gaps remain compared to regional and European levels. “Albania’s integration into international value chains, and exports remained below potential. Furthermore, consolidation of property rights and a fully functioning cadaster are critical prerequisites for increasing investments and access to finance, as well as to achieve competitiveness of the agricultural and tourism sectors,” the report recommends.
In his presentation of the region’s progress reports, Commissioner Varhelyi highlighted the fact that all Western Balkan countries’ GDP was lower than half the average of the EU member states.
