Record depreciation of the euro in 11 years
As more tourists are arriving in Albania for the summer season increasing the offer for the foreign currency, the euro is depreciating ever more against the Albanian lek. Based on the official rate from the Bank of Albania, at the beginning of the week 1 euro was exchanged with 121.6 lek, down by one point. This is the lowest value since 2008. The main reason of the depreciation is tourists bringing in the economy more foreign currencies, that according to the Bank of Albania data they brought 348 million euros during the first quarter of the year. Another reason for the depreciation of the euro according to foreign exchange market experts relates to the approximation of dates to settle the VAT and insurance liabilities of businesses.
Albanian migrants brought 1.3 billion euros in 2018
About 1.2 million Albanian individuals living and working abroad brought in Albania 1.3 billion euros in the form of remittances in 2018, of which 927 million euros come in the form of personal transfers and 309 million euros in income from work. Outflows were 97.5 million euros, remaining 1.23 billion euros, an amount that is nearly 8 percent higher than the previous year, according to the figures published by the Bank of Albania. Remittances are a source of income for about 26 percent of Albanian households. Abroad transfers account for 90 percent of household recipients’ incomes. From around 770 thousand households in Albania, about 200 thousand of them live through the income they receive from their relatives living and working abroad.
Albania starts to remove roaming tariffs with Kosovo
Kosovar Economic Development Minister Valdrin Lluka, has announced that Albania has already started implementing the agreement for the abolition of roaming tariffs for the citizens of Kosovo. So all citizens of Kosovo who visit Albania can now communicate without roaming. In recent declarations, Kosovo government officials had promised that roaming between Kosovo and Albania would take place in May of this year. The roaming tariff refers to the telecommunications and services that citizens use in another country from a mobile phone operator’s center. These tariffs are mostly twice as high as those used within a country. The abolition of telecommunications tariffs for the Western Balkan countries has demanded the European Union as a form of facilitation for communication between citizens.
Number of Kosovo businesses in Albania decreases
The business climate between Albania and Kosovo has deteriorated recently, as economic cooperation is not progressing, on the contrary, during 2018 the number of businesses from Kosovo was 423, down 11 percent from the previous year. The imposition of a new tariff on the Nation’s Way and the worsening of the business climate in Albania have discouraged Kosovo businesses from continuing their activity in Albania. Enterprises from Kosovo were growing in recent years after a deterioration that was observed in 2015, but it seems that the situation has started to deteriorate again. A survey that the Kosovo government did this year with businesses there to identify barriers to export, Albania took second place behind Serbia for the high barriers. Customs clearance procedures in Albania, payment of scanner, notarization of analysis, payment on the way of the nation, failure to take into account the invoice price by the Albanian Customs, implementation of the high excise rate for the beer sector are some of the obstacles to which increase the cost of production but also lower the level of competitiveness of Kosovo products in the Albanian market.
Baby bonuses costs the government 6 million euros
According to the Ministry of Finance, the Albanian government has distributed through the state budget 6 million euros in the form of a bonus for babies born after January 1 during the first five months of the year. Given the drastic fall in the number of births, the government decided last year to provide financial incentives to promote fertility in the country. According to the government’s decision as of Jan. 1, 2019, for the birth of the first child, mothers receive 40 thousand lek (329 euros), then an additional 40 thousand lek for each other child born. While for mother with twin-born, the benefit rate is 80 thousand lek (658 euros) for each child, while for triplets the benefit rate will be 120 thousand lek (987 euros) for each child. The fertility rate in Albania currently is 1.37, our of 2.1 which is the average. That means that 137 babies are born for 100 women.
Banking system still on high profits
April statistics confirmed the positive performance of the banking system in the country. Based on Bank of Albania data, for the first four months of the year the system made a profit of about 6 billion lek (49.3 million euros), almost the same as the first quarter of last year. In terms of return on equity, the profitability of the banking sector was 12.1 percent from 12.4 percent for the same period a year earlier. Results at system level rely on Bank of Albania’s supervisory standards. This is a result of the improvement of asset quality and especially the gradual reduction of the non-performing loans ratio, which is now close to 11.5 percent, when during the crisis years it reached 25 percent.
Expensive lunches in Albania and Montenegro
According to website Numbeo which reports various indicators on living costs and quality of life, a meal for two persons in an average restaurant in Albania will not cost more than 2500 lek (20 euros). Comparing to Switzerland, the bill in our country is about four times lower, but when compared to the region, Albania is listed among the expensive countries along with Montenegro. In Montenegro, a three-course lunch for two people in an average restaurant costs about 3000 lek (24.5 euros), more expensive than in some European countries such as Slovakia, the Czech Republic or Poland, where the same menu costs 2800 lek (23 euros). Macedonia and Bosnia and Herzegovina ranked among the cheapest countries in Europe to eat out, where a standard three-plate menu costs less than 2000 lek (16 euros). Serbia also offers a cheap fare in restaurants, with a of 2,332 lek (19 euros) for two persons.
