Albania's economic growth requires a stronger and more stable economic model, he emphasizes report the latest of the World Bank, published a few days ago.
"Albania's economic model requires greater investment in people's skills, sustainability and public finances", it is emphasized in the press release of reports, also noting the high level of public debt in Albania.
According to the new Economic Memorandum of the World Bank (CEM) for Albania, the country has been severely affected by the economic shocks that followed the earthquake of 2019, as well as the COVID-19 pandemic.
"Once the ongoing health crisis subsides, the country will need to refocus on its long-term economic objectives, which include building a strong and sustainable growth model to improve the living standards of its citizens, thereby helping to encouraging people with skills and talent to stay in Albania", says the report.
The manager of the World Bank for Albania, Emanuel Salinas stated:
"Through this report, we conduct a new analysis of Albania's development challenges, summarize progress with the implementation of reforms, and offer key recommendations that can help Albania achieve a sustainable, resilient and inclusive economic recovery."
On investing in people and improving skills, the World Bank says Albania needs to shift its workforce from low- and medium-skilled jobs to high-skilled jobs.
"On increasing productivity and creating better job opportunities" the report states that GDP per employed person in Albania would increase by 40% if Albanian businesses had the same level of productivity as the average firm in the Western Balkans.
"For Albanian companies to be more productive, the business environment must be improved, innovation strengthened and the integration of Albanians in the global economy deepened", explains the World Bank report.
"Building a more sustainable growth model"
The report estimates that more than 70% of waste in Albania is mismanaged, while earthquakes and floods cause damage costing an average of $147 million each year.
"Albania must build an economic model that is environmentally conscious and more resistant to natural disasters," the report states.
Albania has an increasing inflation, according to the data of INSTAT inflation has increased by 3.7%, for a large part inflation is much higher.
The "Food and Non-Alcoholic Beverages" category, in the INSTAT data, has increased by 6.7%.
According to INSTAT, this category is 35% of Albanian citizens' expenses.
According to economists this percentage may be true for an average family, but for poor families it is much higher.
The Albanian Economist estimates that poor families spend over 50% of their budget on food, and as a result are more affected by inflation at the moment. "So a poor family, taking INSTAT data into account, is very likely to have inflation above 5%", explains the Albanian Economist.
"Public debt above the average of 6 Western Balkan countries"
The World Bank's report on "Strengthening public finances" estimates that Albania's public debt is well above the average of the six countries of the Western Balkans.
"In order to guarantee the sustainability of the country's finances, personal income tax rates must be fairer, VAT revenues must increase and the credibility of fiscal policy must be strengthened, especially through a sustained political commitment to fiscal rules", says the report.
For the year 2022, the Public Debt per capita is predicted to reach the value of 496,040 Lek or about 4,099 Euro, referring to the data of Open Data.
Open Data has made a comparison on the data of 2020, compared to five years ago, an Albanian citizen will pay about 117,343 Lek more, i.e. an increase in Debt per capita of 31%.
According to these data, ShqipCroatia ranks third after Montenegro and Serbia in terms of public debt.
According to ODA, the countries with the lowest cost of public debt are Kosovo with around 925 Euros, Bosnia and Herzegovina with around 1953 Euros and North Macedonia with around 2676 Euros.
Despite the economic growth that Albania has experienced, experts analyze that the poverty level remains almost the same with the year 2008. Referring to the data of the Albanian Economist by the economist Klajdi Bregu, in 2008 in Albania 31% of the population lived on less than five Euros a day, while in 2021 this figure was 30.8 percent.
Economist Klajdi Bregu explained to Citizens Channel: "this has happened despite the fact that the Gross Domestic Product (GDP) per capita has increased by about 27 percent from 2008 to 2021".
According to World Bank from 2021 to 2023, poverty will fall by just 1.5 percent overall, even less than in the past seven years.
Bregu told Citizens that the pace at which poverty has fallen since 2014, when it reached the highest value of 37%, is very worrying.
He completed master's studies in Investigative Journalism at the Department of Journalism at the University of Tirana. She has been working as a journalist for five years, where she previously covered issues of politics and parliamentary activity, in print and online media. She is currently a journalist at Citizens.al, where she covers various social issues related to the transparency of institutions. At Citizens.al, she leads the podcast "The Unheard" and is engaged as a manager of projects related to the support of investigative journalism.
