WB: “Albania’s citizens welfare, 5 decades get equal to that of EU”

The current per capita income in Albania, based on the purchase power standard, is 11,928 USD a year, four times less than the EU average.

For this gap to get closer, the Albanian economy must grow much faster than that of the EU. But what is the possible scenario?

The Bank of Albania says that the growing potential of the Albanian economy is 3.5% a year. With this pace, the average revenues in Albania will reach the EU level only by 2068, or 51 years later.

This scenario calculates the fact that the economic growth of the EU countries will be only 1%. If the economic growth of the EU will be higher than that, then the dream of Albanians to be as rich as Europeans will need more than three generations.

Since 2009, when the Albanian economy was hit by the European crisis, the process for approaching the welfare to that of the EU has frozen.

If the political integration of Albania with the EU might take some years, the equalization of the welfare level may take decades.

Until then, Albanians will still be poorer than their EU neighbors.

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