Lek gains ground against Euro, USD

TIRANA, April 9 – The Albanian national currency, lek, has gained a slight advantage over the Euro and lost ground against the US dollar in the first days of April 2014, according to the Bank of Albania fixed exchange rate.
Europe’s single currency dropped to 139.98 lek this week, down from an average of 140.28 lek in March 2014 and 139.78 lek in March 2013.
Meanwhile, the US dollar slightly recovered to 101.71 lek this week, up from an average of 101.55 lek last March and 107.81 lek in March 2013.
The national currency, lek, has lost around 15 percent during the past five years against the Euro, the main currency used in real estate lending. In November 2008, when the global crisis broke out, the Euro stood at an average of 123.29. Since then, it has been on a constant appreciation trend against Lek, climbing to a historic record high of 141.97 lek in June 2011.
The appreciation of the Euro against the Albanian lek is bad news for borrowers in Euro who have their income in lek and government’s external debt payments but good news for Albanian exporters who have been affected by Eurozone spillover impacts.
Differently from loans, 60 percent of which are issued in foreign currency, mainly in Euro, the situation with deposits appears more balanced with lek deposits accounting for 52 percent of total.