Malaj: Political pact for debt

“It is the moment to take this responsibility or not. Either we keep the situation under control for this year, or you will have real incapability, due to the electoral pressure, and you’ll deteriorate the finances”, Malaj declared.

Malaj thinks that next year’s budget is not realist and could increase the debt while Albania is being surrounded by the Eurozone crisis. He defends the idea of a mutual intervention that affects expenses and taxes.

“We are the country with the higher debt in the region. The average is 47%, but we have it at 60%. If we will not intervene with new policies for the revenues, not only for expenses, the debt will go to 64%”, Malaj declared.

“You can increase taxes, if you want, but we don’t think that this is the model for balancing or receiving a good macro-economic situation for the country. Forget it to increase taxes”, declared the Minister of Finances, Ridvan Bode.

Mr. Bode thinks that the problem of the Albanian economy is not the debt, but something else:

“You must understand that our current challenge is not this. It is the biggest success that we were able to bring it in the center of debate and have monitoring processes for the total deficit and debt. We have set an objective, that the debt will be no higher than 60%. The challenge of Albania is the economic increase and the preservation of the positive trend”, Bode declared.

But the Socialist vice Leader at the Commission of Economy, Mimi Kodheli, says that the government is actually blocking the economic growth.

“The investments and the expenses for the social problems are decreasing, and the debt interest are certainly increasing”, Kodheli declared.

Bode replied:

“We cannot pretend that the public finances will always be the developing motor. We did this for two years, and now we have to gradually open the priorities to the economy.”

The next budget is expected to have an economic increase of 4.3%, which for the opposition is impossible.

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