Crisis reaches Albania

In 2009, when the economic crisis swept the entire Eastern and Central Europe, Albania was one of the three countries in the region that did not fall in recession.

That year, the Albanian economy increase with 3.3%, followed by Kosovo with 2.9% and Poland with 1.6%. The Albanian economy continued keeping positive growth even after 2009, by not falling in recession. For the government this was a sufficient argument for denying the crisis, but the numbers show that the Albanian economy is being hit harder than the other countries.

In 2010, the economic growth for Albania was 3.5%, according to the International Monetary Fund. This was not only the highest number in the European under construction economies, but was even lower than the average of the regional economies, which grew with 4.5%, with Turkey leading the list.

The gap deepened even more last year. According to INSTAT, the economic growth in 2011 fell with 3.1%, with the average of the regional countries, according to IMF, was 2.1% higher. These are factual numbers, belonging to the past years.

The predictions for the years to come are even darker. IMF thinks that the economic growth for Albania this year will be four times lower than the average of the region. The tendency will continue for at least five other years, until 2017, when the economic growth is predicted by experts to reach 1 to 1.5% lower than the average of the region. What the recent figures show, is that the economic crisis in Albania has simply arrived later than in other countries, and if the IMF predictions will come true, chances are that Albania will be the most affected country by this crisis.