Media investigation claims drug proceeds, money laundering is behind euro’s free fall

TIRANA, Feb. 16 – A media investigation claims to have proven that euro inflows into Albania through formal channels don’t explain the sharp depreciation of Europe’s single currency against the Albanian lek, blaming money laundering from crime and drug proceeds and large-scale corruption for the situation that has a series of negative effects on Albania’s highly euroized   economy. Europe’s single currency lost around 7 percent against the Albanian lek in 2018, with a series of implications for the country’s exporters, local producers facing tougher competition from cheaper imports as well as sizeable savings and migrant remittances in Europe’s single…