Fullani urges banks to finance exporting businesses

TIRANA, 24 Feb 2009 – Only a few days after representatives from the textiles industry requested the government’s help to face the global economic crisis, the governor of Bank of Albania, Ardian Fullani, asked the Albanian commercial banks to be more willing with their loans toward exporting businesses in the country.
“I ask you to carefully evaluate the economic importance of exporting businesses, to revise your commission policies and to increase your financing of these businesses,” Fullani said yesterday in a meeting with banking and business representatives.
Fullani mentioned the depreciation of Lek, the Albanian currency, as a sign of lower exports and diminishing remittances from immigrants abroad.
“Exports are an important source of revenues and foreign currency fluctuations for intermediary financing in foreign currency. Therefore, the support of exporting businesses by the financial sector, not only with financial products and resources, but also with financial consultancy, is an activity with bilateral gains,” Fullani said.
Analyzing the recent economic events in developing countries, such as Albania, Fullani confirmed that big companies are in a continual pressure to downsize or pull the plug on their investments and therefore causing a drop in foreign currency supply. Given the global economic conditions, mainly referring to countries exporting Albanian products, Fullani advised Albanian exporters to be more creative and look for new markets outside the traditional ones that are affected by the crisis.
The global economic downturn has deeply affected Albanian exports in the last months. Textiles industry has suffered the biggest blow. It accounted for 55% of the country’s exports in 2007. In December 2008, textile exports were 30 million US$ less than the previous month. The sector is also the biggest employer in the country with more than 100 thousand employees.