TIRANA, August 3 – The southwestern region of Fier, mainly relying on oil production and agriculture, has overtaken Tirana in terms of contribution to GDP, according to a report by the country’s state statistical institute, INSTAT.
Fier, which is the country’s second’s largest region in terms of population and includes the districts of Fier, Lushnje and Mallakaster, had a 0.49 percent contribution to the GDP in 2013 when the Albanian economy grew by 1.11 percent, says the report on Albania’s regional GDP.
The region of Fier is home to the Patos-Marinza oilfield, Europe’s largest onshore oil field where oil production by Canada-based Bankers Petroleum company peaked in 2013. Meanwhile, the district of Lushnja, part of the region or county of Fier, is known as the breadbasket of Albanian agriculture due its fertile lands and hard-working farmers. An oil refiner also operates in the Mallakastra district of the region of Fier.
The region of Fier had some 310,331 residents in 2011, accounting for 11 percent of the country’s total resident population of 2.8 million people, down 8 percent compared to slightly more than 3 million a decade earlier in 2001, according to the latest housing and population census. Some 1 million Albanian live and work only in Italy and Greece, the country’s top trade partners.
The country’s biggest region of Tirana, where more than a quarter of the country’s resident population lives, had a 0.36 percent contribution to the GDP in 2013, despite being the country’s central economic, financial and political area.
Third ranked the central region of Elbasan with a 0.35 percentage point contribution to the GDP, mainly due to the construction of a highway linking it to Tirana and its steel and agriculture industry.
The country’s second most important region of Durres, relying on manufacturing, tourism and agriculture had a 0.24 percentage point contribution to the GDP in 2013.
INSTAT reports Albania’s GDP per capita in 2013 was at 466,000 lek (€3,275), up 1.44 percent compared to 2012.
GDP per capita in Albania’s 12 regions ranged from 303,000 lek (€2,129) in the region of Lezha to 338,000 lek (€2,375) in Shkodra, 349,000 lek (€2,453) in Korça, 442,000 lek (€3,106) in Vlora, 471,000 lek (€3,310) in Durres, 559,000 lek (€3,929) in Fier and 643,000 lek (€4,519) in Tirana, where the GDP per capita is 38 percent above the country’s average.
INSTAT data shows Albania’s GDP per capita expressed in purchasing power standard (PPS) was at 28.9 percent of the EU 28 average in 2013, ranging from 23 percent in the northern regions to 27.6 percent in the southern regions and 34.5 percent in the central regions of Tirana and Elbasan.
Albania’s GDP per capita expressed in PPS, an artificial currency unit that eliminates price level differences between countries, slightly climbed to 29 percent of the EU 28 average in 2014, up from 27 percent in 2013 ranking better only compared to Bosnia and Herzegovina’s 28 percent in a 37-country list which includes 28 EU member states, three EFTA members, five EU candidate countries and one potential candidate, according to Eurostat, the statistical office of the European Union.
INSTAT data shows the services sector accounted for 52 percent of the GDP in 2013 followed by agriculture 22.5 percent, industry with 14.4 percent and construction with 11.9 percent.
Revised INSTAT data shows the Albanian economy grew by 2.12 percent in 2014, up from 1.11 percent in 2013, 1.42 percent in 2012, an average of 3 percent in 2010 and 2011 and a pre-crisis decade of 6 percent.
The Albanian government and the IMF have recently revised Albania’s 2015 GDP growth to 2.7 percent down from an initial 3 percent on lower international oil prices affecting exports and spillover impacts from the crisis in neighboring Greece.
