Fitch Solutions: Albania has high political and economic risk

TIRANA, July 3- Fitch Solutions has released the latest country risk index report in Southeast Europe. Fitch’s index lists countries on a scale from 0 to 100, assessing short and long-term political stability, short-term economic outlook, long-term economic potential, and operational barriers to doing business (the lower the index, the higher the risk). Albania, along with Kosovo and Bosnia and Herzegovina, is included in the countries with the highest economic risk in the short term. The index for Albania is 45.2, weakening slightly in relation to the previous year’s rating, while the lowest is Bosnia and Herzegovina with 35.8 and Kosovo with 40.4 percent. The most positive prospect in the short run is Macedonia, with an index of 52.9. In the long run, the index foresees for Albania a slight improvement of the economic prospect (the index increases to 50.3). Also in last year’s report the economic outlook was expected to improve at 49.6, but that didn’t happen. Regarding political risk, it remains lower than in Kosovo, Macedonia and Bosnia, with an index of 54.8. The political situation is expected to have the largest long-term improvement, as the index is projected to increase to 71.3, moving to Montenegro as well. Albania remains one of the countries with the highest operational barriers to doing business, with an index of 50.8 points, ranking slightly better only in comparison with Bosnia (46.8), which is a problematic state because of the split in two entities that creates great bureaucratic hurdles. Even Kosovo, a relatively new country, ranks better than Albania, having fewer operational barriers to doing business with. In the country’s risk indicator, Albania is the third most negative, after Bosnia and Herzegovina and Kosovo. Fitch Solutions is an industry-leading provider of credit, debt market, and macro intelligence solutions, and the primary distributor of Fitch Ratings content. It is part of Fitch Group, a global leader in financial information services with operations in more than 30 countries.