World warns Albania to be careful with global crisis effects

TIRANA, March 25 – At a time when the Tirana government insists it is not affected by the global financial crisis, that the country had significant growth in 2008 and expects a continuation this year, there come insistent voices form the two main international financial institutions that the tiny Balkan country should pay good attention to the economic development and prevent negative effects that could turn easily into bigger damages in a still very poor country.
The International Monetary Fund includes Albania in the group of countries that are very vulnerable from the consequences of the global crisis in 2009.
IMF experts consider that Albania may have some $349 million of consequences this year. They urge the local government to set aside a contingency plan and funding needed to cope with the effects.
The government has declared it has already set aside 13.7 billion leks, which is in fact only one third of what the IMF says.
The global economic crisis threatens to deepen poverty in Albania, says the World Bank. Albania is classified among countries threatened by the average effects of the crisis in terms of deepening the poverty line. The World Bank also says Albania has not much room to cut taxes further or to increase the budget deficit as a way to boost the economy. The World Bank suggests increasing institutional capacity, which means the implementation of programs to protect the poorest strata of society from the impact of the crisis.
The OSCE Ambassador Robert Bosch has also said that Albania is suffering from the fall of the immigrants’ remittances.