Gov’t revenue grows in January

TIRANA, Feb. 27 – After registering the first annual decline in the past 15 years, government revenue recorded an 8 percent growth in January 2013. Finance Ministry data show government collected 27.6 billion lek in January 2013, up 8.2 percent year on year and spend 27.4 billion lek, which resulted in a surplus of 258 million lek. Data show consumption remains poor as indirectly shown by the performance of the value added tax which declined by 6.5 percent compared to January 2012. However, excise taxes and profit tax, which in 2012 registered sharp drops, slightly increased in January 2013.
For the first time since 1997 when the notorious pyramid schemes collapsed and the economy suffered a sharp 11 percent shrink, government revenues suffered an annual drop, revealing the escalating woes of the Albanian economy since the onset of the global crisis in 2009. Finance Ministry data show total revenues shrank by 0.2 percent to 330 billion lek (Euro 2.3 billion) in 2012, registering the first annual shrink in the past 15 years. The performance proves the escalation of impacts from the global crisis and rising public debt now standing above the former 60 percent of the GDP ceiling.
The Finance Ministry data reconfirm the stagnation of domestic consumption, which is the key driver of the Albanian economy at a time when exports’ growth has considerably slowed down due to escalating crisis in the Eurozone and especially top trade partners Italy and Greece.
Public investments, included in the capital expenditure item, dropped to 60 billion lek (Euro 421 million) in 2012, down 14 percent compared to 2011 registering the lowest level since 2007.