FinMin optimistic economy to grow more than 4% in 2010

TIRANA, September 6 – Government is confident the country’s good performance in the tax and customs offices will make the Albanian GDP grow by more than 4 percent this year, up from 3.3 percent in 2009.
Speaking at a press conference last weekend, Finance Minister Ridvan Bode said the tax and customs administrations had collected 207 billion lek (around 2 billion dollars) in the first eight months of this year, exceeding the target by 1 billion lek.
“According to our assessments and the macro-fiscal framework, we expect an economic growth above 4 percent. If the growth rates continue the same as in August, the growth could be higher,” said Bode.
He assured the government would respect the budget deficit levels.
Government has recently cut spending by 39 billion lek (390 million dollars) for the rest of this year in an effort to keep public debt levels at 59.5 percent of the GDP and reduce budget deficit to 3.1 percent by the end of the year, down from a record 7 percent at the end of last year.
Government has also lowered its GDP growth forecast to 4.1 percent, down from an expected 5.5 percent at the beginning of this year, which is still almost twice higher compared to what international institutions such as IMF and the EBRD expect in 2010.
The Albanian economy saw a significant decline in its growth rate in 2009, from 7.9 per cent in 2008 to an estimated 3.3 per cent in 2009, but remained one of the few European economies which did not suffer a recession.
The European Bank for Reconstruction and Development (EBRD) says Albanian GDP will grow by 1.4 percent this year while the IMF expects 2.3 percent in 2010 and 3.2 in 2011. Meanwhile, government expects a 4.1 percent growth after budget review.