“Election campaign damaged economy”

Bank of Albania Governor Gent Sejko said the election campaign could have damaged the economy, especially in the second quarter of the year.

The economic growth mark the value of 3.94 percent in the first quarter of the year. Meanwhile, available data suggest a slowdown in the second quarter of the year. One of the main factors for this slowdown concerns the uncertainties associated with the election situation”, Sejko said.

But the election outcome has not alleviated risks to the economy. The Bank of Albania now has another concern.

“later in the last month, increased uncertainty stems from unfavourable climate conditions related to drought, whose effects may surface in the specific production sectors”, Sejko underlined.

Asked by journalists, the governor also talked about fluctuations in the exchange course. He said depreciation of the euro is the result of increased foreign investments and tourist flows, but for the first time acknowledged that there could be another factor.

This does not prevent money from running out of informality. But we as an institution speak only on the basis of the figures and the figures tell us that we have an increased bid in the euro as a result of the factors that I mentioned earlier, and that has led to the strengthening of the lek”, Sejko explained.

The Bank of Albania kept the basic interest rate unchanged at 1.25 per cent and warned it would not increase it until at least the first quarter of 2018, the TCC reports.