TIRANA, April 19 – The resumption of electricity exports and crude oil production wholly destined for sales abroad following the bankruptcy of a local refiner, had a strong impact on the recovery of Albania’s exports during the first quarter of this year.
Albania’s state-run power utility has been constantly exporting electricity since last December following one of the worst droughts in decades paralyzing domestic hydro-dependent electricity generation and triggering costly imports of about €200 million for the second half of 2017.
Meanwhile, domestic oil production is now completely destined for exports, mainly to Spain and Malta, following the suspension of works at a local refinery, leaving more than 1,000 workers jobless after the bankruptcy of the company managing it.
Data published by the country’s state statistical institute, INSTAT, shows Albania’s exports rose by an annual 19 percent to 74.4 billion lek (€573 mln) in the first quarter of this year, led by the traditional ‘garment and footwear’ products and ‘minerals, fuels and electricity.’
However, it was the ‘construction materials and metals led by steel, cement and brick exports that registered the strongest growth rates and had the key 5.6 percentage point contribution to the annual growth in exports.
Meanwhile, Albania’s trade gap remained almost unchanged in the first quarter of this year despite exports registering strong double-digit growth rates, in a situation apparently negatively affected by oil imports meeting all of the country’s domestic needs following the bankruptcy of a local refinery in late 2017.
Oil imports rose by a record 70 percent to 77,702 metric tons in the first two months of this year, according to finance ministry data.
INSTAT data shows Albania’s trade gap slightly widened to about 71 billion lek (€546 mln) in the first three months of this year when imports grew by about 10 percent.
Imports of ‘machinery, equipment and spare parts,’ an indicator also measuring the level of domestic investment, grew by 15 percent to about 33 billion lek (€256 mln), leading the country’s imports.
Albania’s exports grew by 12 percent in 2017 following modest growth of 0.1 percent in 2016 and a 5 percent decline in 2015 triggered by a sharp cut in international oil and mineral prices.
Albania is a net importer with exports covering only about half of what the country imports.
Trade exchanges with the EU accounted for more than two-thirds of the total in 2017 with Italy, Greece, Germany and China as the country’s main trading partner.
