Berisha: USA, interest for investments

“Naturally, their presence is a proof of the interest for the big potentials offered today by Albania for the US investors and those from all other countries”, Berisha declared.

“Their presence here is a proof of the will that they have for seeing all these opportunities, for taking as much information as possible and following the example of those investors that made Albania of 2010 to have three times more direct foreign investments than in 2006”, the Prime Minister continued.

He expressed his optimism for the future, referring to the fact that Albania of 2010 might be the only country in Southeastern Europe with increased foreign investments.

 Finances deteriorate, less investments

The government finances deteriorated this August, because the tax revenues were almost halted. The official data of the Ministry of Finances indicate that only for the last month, the government collected from the taxes and other sources almost 17 million USD less revenues than the budget cut plan.

The shortfall figure for August was higher than the total of the past 7 months, until July. The revenue deficit in total, for 8 months, is 32.5 million USD.

The finances of the country are facing a hard period. The government has the hands tied with the finances since the country’s public debt is near the 60% limit, which cannot be surpassed by Parliament law. For keeping the debt under control, the government is obliged to compensate every shortfall in the revenues by cutting expenses, especially on investments.

The government cannot cut wages and pensions; therefore they are obliged to decrease the public investments. The data indicate that for the first eight months of the year, the investments were 37 million USD, or 6.1 less than what were approved in the budget. All cuts happened in August, when the government invested only half of what predicted.

The last years have shown that the sectors that endure more cuts in times of shortfalls are those of education and health, which start the budget as priority and end up with extreme cuts. Chances are that the government will ask the Parliament the right to make other budget amends through a normative act, as it has happened in the last years when the state budget was changed three times in one year, and the three times with cuts. 

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