Ahmetaj: Economy is recovering
12/07/2014 00:00
The Washington Agreement Must Be Reactivated! 06/01 19:04
The government believes that the economic growth for 2014 will be higher
than predicted in the beginning of this year. The Minister of Economic
Development and Business, Arben Ahmetaj, says that after two difficult
years, the economy has started to recover.
“The economic growth for the first trimester is 1.65%. Although modest, it shows a positive trend and it also shows that Albania has the possibility to get an economic growth of 2.5% by the end of the year. We are coming from a very low level, since the economic growth during the past year was the lowest”, declared Minister Ahmetaj.
According to him, the revival of the economy is proven by a series of indicators in the first half of this year, such as retail sales and imports, which, according to INSTAT, have grown with 5.7 and 8.7%.
“Consumption growth has started to get consolidated, and that is an important part of the economic growth. This is reflected by the increased incomes from customs and the tax office. Incomes have grown based on the growth of the economic activity”, Ahmetaj declared.
According to him, the growth pace of exports is also encouraging, led by the manufacturing industry and agriculture.
“The manufacturing package that came out a few months ago has direct signs of good functioning, resulting in record figures of export. The exports had 87 million USD more than the same period of one year ago. The economic improvement has a real consolidation in 2014”, concluded Minister Ahmetaj.
The economic growth decreased to the minimal level of 1.5% during the past two years, according to INSTAT, marking the longest period with a low growth since the start of transition.
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