Budget clashes

“The annual deficit decreased with 3%, the lowest of the entire transitional history of Albania. Secondly, this year we had the pressure of the global crisis, and yet the public debt decreased with 1% of the GDP”, the Minister declared.

But the opposition reads the budget numbers differently. Mimi Kodheli listed two indicators, which according to her show that the government has failed with the finances.

“The budget revenues for 2010 are at -8.9 billion ALL, while the tax revenues level is -10.5 ALL”, Kodheli declared.

The other Socialist MP, Arben Malaj, added that the deficit decrease was obligatory, but it had a high cost for the Albanian economy.

“If we verify that there is a failure to realize the revenues, and a lower deficit on the other hand, there are two factors that could have brought this, but none of them has a positive impact. The first are the spontaneous revenues that might derive from massive privatization, and the government has been very excessive with the that, leaving nothing to privatize anymore. Secondly, it is the failure to realize the expenses, which brings a worse economic impact with the investments”, Malaj declared.

“The challenge of the finances today, all over the world, is cutting expenses. We do not cut expenses, because the budget cost has increased. We must cut the wages and pensions, before cutting expenses. What we made possible was that we cut the expenses by increasing the wages and pensions for 2010. We have kept central and local investments in a level of 7%. When have you ever done this”, Bode replied.

In 2010, the Albanian government followed a tight financial policy, cutting the expenses many times, mostly on public investments.

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