Foreign Direct Investments Surpass €500 million, in Jan-Jun 2019

TIRANA, 12 September

Foreign direct investments (FDI) were up by 10% in the first 6 months of 2019, whilst the companies with foreign capital have expanded their activity in Albania. Official data by the Bank of Albania, show that between January-June 2019, the foreign companies invested over €535 million in the Albanian economy, from €484 million for the same period in 2018.

Based on this data, the majority of these investments, around €353 million were capitals that came from abroad, recently. The remaining part, of €182 million is made up by profits reinvested by the foreign companies that are present in Albania. For several years, the flow of foreign investments in the Albanian economy has been relatively high. The historic record was registered last year, when the foreign businesses invested €1.21 billion in Albania.

But even though the figure of FDI seems high, the profits for the economy have been small. This is because the majority of investments from abroad are about the exploitation of mineral resources in Albania, energetic works or the so-called untradeable sectors, such as the purchase of the real estate. Only a very small part of the foreign capital has gone for the manufacturing sector, which expands the production, increases employment and exports.

According to Bank of Albania, last year the majority of the foreign investments were concentrated in 4 sectors of the economy: energy, extractive industry, real estate and the financial sector. Meanwhile, only 10% of them were in the processing industry or other sectors that contribute in the added-value for the economy.

Source/Top Channel.tv

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