IMF: Economic growth, minimal

02/10/2012 00:00

The Head of the IMF mission in Tirana, Nadin Ilahi, declared that the
Eurozone crisis has increased the pressure on the Albanian economy by
slowing down the economic growth to its most minimal levels.

“Since the beginning of the 2008 economic crisis, the Albanian economy has progressed better than the other countries in the region. But the continuing crisis and the destabilization in the other countries are still transmitting shocks and the economic growth is slowing down. IMD values that the growth will slow down with 0.5% this year, and the evaluation for the next year is 1.3”, Ilahi declared.

“We think that there will be an economic growth of 3%, due to a modest domestic demand and a more evident growth of the Albanian exports”, declared the Interior Minister, Ridvan Bode.

IMF values that the economy is still facing the debt danger, which will keep staying at the maximal 60% limit for the next six years. For this reason, IMF asked the government to use the privatization money to decrease not only the official, but also the hidden debt.

“Seeing the high public debt level, we think that most of the privatizations revenues must go to the debt reduction and the government’s due obligations that must be cleared out as soon as possible”, Ilahi declared.

According to the IMF, the payment of the government’s delayed bills not only would make the economy breathe, but it would also soften another danger that according to him was made very serious recently.

“We have discussed with the Albanian Bank and many others about the increase of the bad loan level. We think that this is an acute issue, especially during the last year, due to the economic growth slowdown and the government’s delayed payments to the private sector, which has increased the bad loans in banks”, the IMF representative declared.

Although the Albanian government sees a less pessimistic situation than the IMF, all their hopes are hanging on the Albpetrol privatization, the rescue boat that will pull the economy out of the crisis.

“We think that we will resolve the problems related to the delayed payments through the success of the privatization agenda. Certainly, it will decrease the public debt pressure, which will be used to push the Albanian economy through a productive investment agenda and the production support”, Bode declared.

The IMF mission was visiting Tirana for supervising the financial situation of the government and the Albanian economic situation.

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