WB: Economic growth 1.6%
05/06/2012 00:00
Linda Rama: Between Family, Work and Albania’s Future 18/08 14:30
The World Bank declared that they have reduced Albania’s economic growth
evaluation with only 1.6%. After publishing the economic growth report
for Southeastern Europe, the Director of the Bank for Albania, Ksenia
Lvovski, in an interview for Top Channel, predicted that 2012 will be a
difficult year, and they explained the reasons for this.
“The situation in Europe keeps being deteriorated. The recession is continuing and the turbulences too. There are dangers for Greece exiting the EU. In these conditions, it is no surprise that the small economies of Southern Europe will face difficult times and an economic slowdown”, Lvovski declared.
But what does such a slow growth mean for Albania, and how does it affect the citizens?
“There is no much difference if it is 2, 1.6 or 3%. It is a very weak economic growth, and insufficient for fighting poverty and unemployment. A slow growth cannot be a growth that goes for the poor people. For this reason, Albania’s main priority should be defending the poor”, declared the World Bank director for Albania.
Mr. Lvovski says that in these difficult times, countries like Albania have fewer opportunities to react, since the governments don’t have fiscal spaces and money. The World Bank notes the debt that the government has created with businesses.
“There have been some unpaid obligations with the private sector recently. If businesses don’t get paid, it is clear that their ability to continue the activity will be affected. This is one of the factors, if not the only one, that has increased the bad loans. The fiscal discipline must be more essential than numbers, because it is important to keep the deficit at 3%, but it is also important to stop creating debts in the future”, Lvovski declared.
Being in a difficult financial situation, the government is negotiating with the World Bank for a 300 million USD loan as budget support. The negotiations have continued for some month and at this point Mrs. Lvovski has a message for the Albanian government.
“The government will start reviewing the budget soon. This is something that we have discussed. After this review, we will be able to understand better how fast we can move with our assistance”, Lvovski declared.
WB report: Regional economies depending from Greece
The recent World Bank report for the economic developments in Southeastern Europe notes that the regional countries are facing a considerable economic slowdown due to the high insecurities in the Eurozone. The World Bank notes that after an increase of 2.2%, the first signs show that Albania, Bosnia & Herzegovina, Kosovo, Macedonia, Montenegro and Serbia are experiencing a slowdown of 1.1% this year.
Experts even warn that the statistics could even deteriorate, depending on how the Greek economic crisis will be resolved. The report notes that some of the regional countries that have high debts like Albania, have difficulties to undertake a stable fiscal consolidation for changing the negative dynamics of the debt and for establishing the bases of a long-term economic dynamics.
Top Channel
