TIRANA, Nov.14- Remittances from the EU for eastern countries amounted to 26 billion euro compared to the 23 billion in 2005. The European Institute of Statistics has reported that developing countries, including Albania, have benefited from 20 billion euro that immigrants sent home in 2006. The rest has been money transferred within the EU.
Albania
Official data reveal that around 20 percent of the Albanian population immigrated in the 1990’s and most of them remain concentrated in Greece and Italy, the neighboring countries. Greece has more than 600.000 Albanians and Italy has 250.000 resident Albanians. BoA calculations confirmed by several WB reports, note that the total amount of remittances during 2007 will be $1.3 billion. The amount is equal to 13.5 percent of GDP and enough to finance five percent of the trade deficit of the GDP. In the period of 11 years, immigrants have always increased the amounts that they sent home, with slight alterations in 1997 and 1999. The total value estimated during this period by BoA is 6.6 billion euro.
Western concerns
WB estimated the total value of remittances worldwide for 2006 to be around $ 276 billion. Recently, this has begun to be a problem for developed countries, with the U.S. losing $44.1 billion. Also, Switzerland saw capital worth $13.2 billion leave the country. Many governments are trying to draft projects in order to limit the amount of remittances that can be sent out. In the case of Albania, ramifications of such plans could be catastrophic. Some weeks ago, the Greek newspaper Ta Nea announced that, other than the money they sent home, Albanian immigrants were depositing savings in Greek banks worth $2.5 billion, which could equal 30 percent of Albania’s GDP. One in three transactions in real estate in Greece involves an immigrant, according to reports.
