TIRANA, July 4 – Many world media outlets have recently published the news that Albania has been included by the Moody’s Investors Service in the international finance market. Moody’s announced last week the first sovereign ratings ever assigned to Albania.
The foreign currency bonds were assigned a Ba1 ceiling, while debt obligations were assigned a B1 rating.
“The macro economy suffers from a weak export performance, a shortage of energy, poorly defined and enforced property rights, including an absence of a comprehensive land title registry, a court system that is sub-optimal, and a generally cumbersome business environment,” said a press release. “With the exception of the trade performance, all these weaknesses are being addressed currently by government and multilateral projects.”
The Albania government asked for a country risk evaluation for the first time in 2005. Albania was classified as a “country under development” by the World Bank in 2004, which meant that the country was no longer eligible for concessionary loans. Therefore, in 2005, Albania began to seek loans in the open market.
Albania benefits greatly from a political elite that is pro-business. There are no major differences between political parties in the realm of economic or foreign policy, as all participants tend to be pro-EU, pro-NATO, and very much in favor of the cautious economic policy recommendations received from the IMF, US Treasury, and World Bank.
