The economy is falling further behind

The exports, which have kept the economic growth alive for the last three years have fallen with 8.7%, according to the Bank of Albania, compared to one year ago.

The Bank declared that the decline has been mainly caused by the shrinking of processed goods exports, which warns a further decrease of the industry figures.

The main exporting businesses in the country had warned a further deterioration of the situation, due to the lower demand by the main partners, Greece and Italy.

What export businesses fear most is the fall of consumption, which has not stopped during January. The data indicate that the VAT income, which measure the consumption progress in economy, fell with 330 million ALL, or 3.8%.

The decline took place although the government tried to stop it by increasing a series of taxes, such as car references, fuel excises and carbon taxes.

This shows that the consumption decline could be deeper from what the tax figures show. The general budget incomes were lower during January, not only due to VAT.

According to the Ministry of Finances, the government incomes increased with 5.5%, compared to January 2011.

Being in such a difficult financial situation, due to the income decrease, the government is finding itself in a not very comfortable situation.

As never before, the public investments in January were four times lower than January 2011. On February, the economic situation is not expected to be optimistic.

The snow isolation of some areas of the country, which diminished the  trade possibilities, might have deepened the consumption decrease even more, reflecting in the government income.

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