TIRANA, June 17 – The European Commission has described Albania’s Economic Programme Reform as consistent with the assessments contained in the Commission’s progress reports but identified some challenges to growth which have been left unaddressed by the proposed measure.
“The structural reform framework is more coherent, consistent and streamlined than a year earlier. Some challenges that are identified as being among the main obstacles to growth are however left unaddressed by the proposed measures,” says the Commission assessment of 2015 economic reform programs of candidate and potential candidate countries.
Weaknesses in the rule of law and the business environment, a high degree of informality, structural problems in the energy sector and labour market, failures including skills gaps resulting in high unemployment are identified as the main obstacles to Albania’s growth.
“Some of the identified deficiencies, such as those related to strengthening the rule of law or fighting informality, get little mention in the envisaged measures. However, and taking also into account the public finance-related measures described above, the programme reflects a clear momentum for reforms which should be seized and sustained.”
Albania’s medium-term programme realistically projects that economic performance will gain further traction between 2015 and 2017, as the external environment gradually improves and large FDI projects in the energy sector raise investment.
The Albanian government and the IMF expect the country’s economy to accelerate from 3 percent in 2015t to 4 percent in 2016 and 4.5 percent in 2017.
