Foreign Investments Surged in Q1

TIRANA, June 12

Foreign Direct Investments (FDI) increased by 61.6 percent during the first quarter (Q1) of 2018 compared to the same period of the previous year. The Bank of Albania (BoA) reported that foreign companies invested Euro 283 million in the Albanian economy, or some €108 million more compared to January-March 2017.
BoA confirms that this is the highest level of FDI inflow in the first quarter of the year since 2008.
In the meantime, BoA did not unveil details on the sectors that attracted more investments. However, most of the foreign direct investments during the last years were focused on the energy sector.
The expected completion of the construction of the Trans Adriatic Pipeline (TAP) project and the hydropower plants in Devolli River raised concerns on the inflow of FDI during 2018. On the other hand, according to the World Bank (WB), a decline in FDI would have an impact on the economic growth rate and reduce it to 3.6 percent from 3.9 percent in 2017.
So far, BoA confirms that that data for the first quarter do not confirm this forecast. FDI inflow in the Albanian economy reached the highest level of €942 in 2016 while they marked a slight decline during 2017.

News Source: TCh