Greece loses Albania

A detailed Bank of Albania report shows that compared to 2005, the Greek investments in the Albanian economy have halved from 55 to 27%. But even with 27%, Albania remains the bigger investor in Albania, followed by Italy, which owns 15% of the foreign investments in Albania, same as Canada.

According to the bank, the two countries that are quickly increasing their presence in the Albanian economy are Austria and Turkey, which have compensated the Greek shrinking. Compared to 2005, the Austrian investments have almost tripled to 14% of the total, from the previous 5%.  The Turkish investments have gone from 6 to 11%. But which are the sectors that attract more foreign capitals.

According to the Bank data, the industry is the sector with the biggest flux, profiting around 47.3% of the total investments. Second are services, then the banking sector and energy.

Albanian Bank, foreign investments create few jobs

In 2011, when the direct foreign investments stock reached 2.6 billion EUR, or 37.7 of the GDP, according to Bank of Albania, figures show that this is the lowest level in the region, when this indicator in the neighboring countries goes from 43% to 138%. According to the bank, the cause is related with the low starting point. In 2004, the foreign investments were only 11% of the GDP, while in other countries it was two or three times higher.

The data show that the direct foreign investments in Albania started increasing with a high pace after 2006, increasing more than twice from 15% to 37%. The foreign enterprises in Albania circulate 29% of the total of the GDP.

But since most of them are canalized in sectors with intensive capital and high productivity, their influence in employment is visibly lower. According to the Bank, the enterprises created from foreign investments, although they have 29% of the total turnover, have only 18% of the employed force in Albania.

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