TIRANA, Aug. 31 – Local businessmen complained last week that the government’s refusal to release money from this year’s budget is having a negative impact on the country’s living standards.
During the first half of this year, the government has spent 105.4 billion leks out of 128.2 billion leks it had allocated for use in various projects.
“Under the conditions when the national economy, and especially local businesses, are suffering from the consequences of the lack of energy, water as well as from the Stabilization and Association Agreement, the non-realization of the expenditure is a ‘de facto’ limitation with negative long term effects in the economic development and that is unjustifiable,” said a statement of the Konfindustria group of businessmen.
They also said that not releasing budgeted money created the preconditions for a higher inflation in the next months, an effect that was also mentioned by the central Bank of Albania recently.
