The 2.6 percent growth registered in July-Sept. takes annual growth rate for the first three quarters of 2011 to around 2.2 percent, worse than the same periods in 2009 and 2010
TIRANA, Feb. 15 – The Albanian economy slightly reinvigorated in the third quarter of 2011 when it grew by 2.6 percent year-on-year after managing to escape contraction by a mere 0.5 percent in the second quarter of 2011. Data published by the country’s state Institute of Statistics show transport, trade, industry and construction registered positive annual growth rates of 19.7%, 6.2%, 4.8%, and 0.3 percent respectively, while ‘other services’ and post-telecommunication shrank by 3.3% and 0.5%.
Agriculture which employs around 44 percent of the Albanians grew by 2.5% year-on-year but contracted by 0.3 percent compared to the previous second quarter.
The 2.6 percent growth registered in July-Sept. takes the annual growth rate for the first three quarters of 2011 to around 2.2 percent, worse than the same periods in 2009 and 2010, reflecting a deteriorating trend in Albania’s economic performance after growing by 3.3 percent in 2009 and 3.9 percent in 2010.
According to INSTAT, the Albania economy grew by 3.4 percent in the first quarter of 2011 and 0.5 percent in the second quarter, accounting for an average of 2 percent, making government’s latest review of a 3 percent growth very difficult to achieve as indirect indicators, such as consumption, FDI, remittances hint no improvement for the second half of 2011.
Postponed for Feb.3 2012, the country’s state Institute of Statistics, INSTAT, failed once again to publish quarterly GDP growth report in time, making Albania lag behind almost every regional country in the most important national accounts. INSTAT which in Oct. and Nov. 2011 conducted the housing and population census had published the GDP growth reports for only the first two quarters of 2011 until this week. INSTAT published the second quarter GDP growth report in the last days of 2011, in a publication delayed by more than four months, showing the Albanian economy had grown by 0.5 percent in the second trimester of 2011. The publication of the third quarter GDP growth report initially scheduled for Dec. 2011 was postponed for early Feb. 2012.
While being the only EU aspirant to register positive growth even in the crisis year of 2009, during the first half of 2011 Albania registered the lowest GDP growth, ranking better only compared to Croatia due to join the EU in 2013.A recent report published by the European Commission’s Directorate General for Economic and Financial Affairs shows Albania’s GDP growth for the first half of 2011, at an average of 2 percent, ranks lower compared to EU aspirants Macedonia, Montenegro, Serbia, Turkey and Iceland.
A recent controversial decision made by ruling majority MPs putting the country’s state Institute of Statistics, INSTAT, under the exclusive control of Prime Minister Sali Berisha has sparked fresh debates over the already biased data published by it as the country’s economy’s economy strives to overcome the crisis impacts.
