IMF: Slow economic growth

12/04/2011 16:40

International Monetary Fund faded the optimism for a quick revival of the Albanian economy, predicting for the next several years an economic growth almost twice slower than during the years before global crisis.

In the last World Economic Outlook, IMF estimates that Albanian economy grew during 2010 with 3.5%, 0.4 percentage points lower than the numbers announced some weeks ago by the Albanian Institute of Statistics.

IMF also states that the economy is expected to have the same growth rate this year, and this slow pace will continue for at least five other years.

Albania handled the 2009 Central and Eastern European economic crisis better than other countries, with a 3.3% economic growth, when all the others slumped, except Poland and Kosovo.

But during 2010, according to IMF, some countries of the region had a faster growth than Albania: Turkey 8.2%, Kosovo 4% and Poland 3.8%.

In the years to come, some neighboring economies will keep growing faster than Albania.

If IMF predictions on economic growth will be true for the years to come, the first to be effected are the Albanian citizens, who already have the lowest income in Europe.

If the pre-crisis 6% economic growth would double the per capita income once in 12 years, the growth rates predicted by IMF will give the same result in 20 years.

Another negative effect of the economic slowdown is that of public finances.

Since Albania is one of the developing countries with the highest debt, a slow economic growth hampers debt decrease.

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