Economic hardship is changing the tone and quality of political debate
Tirana Times Editorial
Tirana, March 29 – It wasn’t long ago that the political debate in Albania revolved around whether there was an economic crisis going on or not. The government depicted Albania as a success story of economic freedom, while the opposition has insisted the country has been in crisis for years. The truth had been somewhere in the middle, however, that is no longer the case. Everyone agrees Albania is now in economic rough waters the country can’t fully control because they are tied to larger international developments.
A group of experts quoted in this week’s cover story indicate 2012 will be a tough year economically, as the aftermath of the European crisis continues to affect many aspects of Albania’s economy. The fall of remittances, a decline in spending, frozen real estate markets, lower import and export rates are all problematic signs for the economy. It doesn’t matter that the numbers say there is no recession going on. Very low growth rates for an economy like that of Albania are troublesome nonetheless.
And the latest decision by the Bank of Albania to lower interest rates is an indication the central bank is trying hard to deal with the situation, but the results have been meager so far. In fact, since last September, the Bank of Albania has lowered its key interest rate by a total of 1 percentage point in four consecutive interventions, but the moves have been hardly reflected in the domestic market where lending rates remain high and treasury bill yields have been on the rise.
The central bank governor, Adrian Fullani, agrees with the experts that 2012 will be tough. It is a challenge not only for the Albanian economy, he says, but the European economy in general, because Albania operates under conditions of a regional markets affected by the Greek crisis.
Faced with this new reality, Albanian politicians have started to adapt. Well-known for their harsh, deeply personal and often irrational political debates, Albanian politicians have been involved in a surprisingly civilized and argument-based debate when it comes to the economy. The government gives typical right-of-center arguments about how to stimulate the economy with flat low taxes and the Socialist opposition has been offering a typical leftist model of progressive taxation and government incentives for job creation.
At the conference in our cover story, one of the experts, Gjergj Filipi of the Agenda Institute, pointed out that the economic hardship can also serve as a lesson of cooperation, rather than stumbling block for political forces. Indeed, that the potential to learn lessons and improve is one of the few positive aspects of any crisis. “Although this doesn’t happen on its own, all parties must actively study the issues and seek change,” he said.
In recognizing that they face a new common foe – a bad economy – Albanian politicians are finally waking up to the fact that they need to offer real alternatives and a modern way of thinking if they want indeed to lead a modern prosperous country.
We are not there yet, but with all the bad news about the economy, political cooperation – even if it comes in the form of civilized, constructive debate — might just the be the light at the end of the tunnel Albania needs to see today.
