Apart from financing the budget deficit, the loan will be used to pay off part of the accumulated unpaid government bills to the business community.
TIRANA, Oct. 15 – The Albanian government is seeking to borrow 24 billion lek (Euro 167 million) from the top international financial institutions to handle the difficult situation with the country’s underperforming public finances in this electoral year. Finance Minister Shkelqim Cani who recently visited the United States said he met IMF and World Bank officials to negotiate over the loan.
In an interview with VoA in the local Albanian service, Finance Minister Cani said government’s first option was borrowing from the IMF and the World Bank. “The Albanian government and the Prime Minister has authorized me to study all markets and take a loan at the best terms. Thus, the IMF and the World Bank option is the first one but we will also examine if there are better options in the internal market or other international stakeholders,” said Cani.
Apart from financing the budget deficit, the loan will be used to pay off part of the accumulated unpaid government bills to the business community.
The Finance Minister had earlier announced the Albanian government needs to borrow around 24 billion lek for this year considering the poor performance of public finances in the first eight months of this year.
The Finance Minister has earlier said government was considering external borrowing to pay off the accumulated unpaid bills and arrears government owes to the business community.
In its review to the 2013 budget, the Finance Ministry says it will cut expenditure by 16 billion lek (Euro 111 million), and the revenue target by 40 billion lek (Euro 277 million).
The Albanian government expects growth to range between 1.7 to 1.9 percent in 2013 and public debt to increase to 68 percent of the GDP without including an estimated 55-60 billion lek (Euro 382 to 416 million) in unpaid government bills and arrears which would take public debt to 72 percent of the GDP at the end of 2013.
