The second half of 2015 has marked another a drop of 10.5% of
remittances. The Bank of Albania say that this might have been caused by
the economic slowdown of Greek and Italian economy.
Recent data from the Bank of Albania showed that the remittances for the fourth trimester of the last year were 10.5% lower than the same period of one year ago. This is the second consequent trimester with a drop.
Revenues of immigrants increased with 21% in the first half of 2015, giving hopes that the families depending from them would have a better financial year. But the positive tendency was overthrown right after the deepening Greek crisis, when the neighboring country was risking to get out of the Eurozone.
As result, the remittances dropped with 15% in the third trimester, and with 10.% in the last one. Besides the return of Greece in recession, the entire Eurozone had a slowdown in the second semester.
The Italian economy, which is the main source of remittances for Albania, almost turned into stagnation during the fourth trimester, with an insignificant growth of 0.1%.
Remittances are an important source for dozens of families in Albania. They peaked in 2007, when Albania received almost 1 billion in remittances, but dropped as soon as the European economy was involved by the crisis. Remittances started dropping to 500 million and 600 million EUR a year.
Top Channel
