IMF – Albania meeting conclusions

The Albanian government and the IMF delegation concluded their meeting by reaching an agreement according to which the IMF agrees on the fifth and sixth review of the agreement, after the delegation evaluated the reforms undertaken by the government. The news was announced by the Minister of Finances Shkelqim Cani on Thursday in a joint press conference with the Minister of Economy Arben Ahmetaj, the Bank of Albania Governor Gent Sejko and the IMF chief for Albania Anita Tuladhar.

 According to the Minister of Finances, “there are two groups of investors that believe in the Albania’s economy – the ones who bought Eurobonds released by the Albanian government and the IMF.” He added that besides the fact that there will be no increase of taxes during 2016 and that some of the taxes may decrease, the new draft budget 2016 foresees that the country’s economy will experience a primary surplus which is expected to grow further within the next years.

Speaking about the reforms undertaken by the current government in the past two years such as the reform in the energy sector and the reform against the informality, the Minister declared that such reforms have been evaluated by the IMF officials in their latest report about Albania. Minister Cani stressed that the country’s economy revived during 2015 and registered a slight increase of 2.7%.

News source/photo credits: ATA