TIRANA, Dec. 8 – Gjergj Filipi, a renowned economist and the director of the country’s state statistical institute, INSTAT, has died at the age of 38 following treatment for cancer.
He died on Monday evening at a hospital in Athens where he was receiving treatment, local media reported.
INSTAT said in a statement Filipi’s premature death was a great loss.
“His leadership skills, energy, dedication and professionalism made the Institute of Statistics progress a lot in the past two years under his management,” INSTAT said in a statement.
Filipi studied business and economy in Romania, where he also received his PhD. He had been in charge of INSTAT since October 2013. He previously served as research director at the Agenda Institute think tank and also worked as a consultant on projects dealing with economic development and European integration supported by the EU, the World Bank and the UN.
Filipi is survived by his wife and two children aged 6 and 2.
“Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind, this was our Gjergji,” Tirana Mayor Erion Veliaj, and a former civil society colleague of Filipi, wrote on Twitter.
