TIRANA, January 9
Based on the latest World Bank (WB) estimates, Albania’s growth in 2019 and 2020 is forecast to decline to 2.9 percent and 3.4 percent respectively. This means that the change from June 2019 projections is respective minus 0.8 and 0.3 points.
The WB Global Economic Prospect, published on Wednesday, reads that in 2021, the economy of Albania is likely to grow by 3.6 percent. Moreover, Albania’s economy is expected to grow at a rate of 3.5 percent in 2022.
According to the WB, a deceleration in exports contributed to a moderation in growth in Albania. The report points out that temporary factors related to weather and energy production dampened activity in Albania. Meanwhile, the November earthquake took a heavy toll on human life and physical infrastructure.
About the WB region, the outlook remains challenging as falling business confidence and heightened uncertainty coincides with a worsening external environment
Growth is projected to firm to 3.8 percent by 2021 in the Western Balkans, assuming political instability and policy uncertainty remain contained.
Moreover, it highlights that Central Europe is forecast to sharply decelerate over the forecast horizon, to 3.4 percent GDP growth in 2020 and 3 percent by 2022.
Growth prospects will be limited by shrinking the working-age population partly reflecting emigration to Western Europe in recent years.
At the same time, the report points out that Economies in the Western Balkans (Albania, Montenegro, Serbia) have elevated out-of-school rates relative to the ECA average for secondary education (UNICEF 2019).
Source/Photo Credit: The WB
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