TIRANA, Feb. 18 – The World Bank office in Albania estimates the recent floods in southern Albania will have a limited impact on the country’s economic growth prospects for 2015.
Speaking in a TV interview this week, Tahseen Sayed, the World Bank country manager for Albania, said the Bank had closely followed the situation and that its experts were trying to make an assessment.
“It is still unknown how this situation will influence on Albania’s economic growth. Fortunately, the flooding was not of an extraordinary scale,” Sayed told Ora News TV in an interview.
The World Bank expects Albania’s economy to grow by 3 percent on recovering consumption and a boost in foreign direct investment from the start of the Trans Adriatic Pipeline construction bringing Caspian gas to Europe through Albania, Greece and Italy.
The flooding in southern Albania in early February caused considerable damage to agriculture, livestock, houses and businesses and local infrastructure, estimated at millions of euros.
Agriculture is one of the most climate-sensitive of all economic sectors, and without a clear plan for aligning agricultural policies with climate change, the livelihoods of rural populations are at risk, says the World Bank in a publication over reducing the vulnerability of Albania’s agricultural systems to climate change.
The Albanian government and international financial institutions such as the World Bank and the IMF expect the country’s economy to accelerate to 3 percent in 2015 but the flooding could cause a revise downward of the GDP as happened in Serbia and Bosnia and Herzegovina.
Back in May 2014, devastating flooding in Serbia and Bosnia and Herzegovina were a major factor in their poor economic performance.
