Bank of Albania: Economic downturn from 5-8 % this year

The Bank of Albania predicts that 2021 will mark the recovery of the country's economy, following the major difficulties the COVID-19 situation created.

Bank of Albania Governor Gent Sejko said today during a television interview that “2020 will have an economic decline among the 5% .8% 8%”.

The important “is to combine policies and measures so that we can have the rapid recovery of the economy and react effectively and productively. Our forecast is that in 2021, in cases that we will not have a return to the pandemic, we will have a very strong economic recovery”, Sejko said.

The 2020 economic recovery will probably be restored at a faster rate in 2021. We aim for the summer period to be a more productive time in order to recover losses from previous periods. So in the first quarter of 2021, let's see the positive trend. The forecast is that the strongest shock the Albanian economy has received is the second quarter of 2020, while the third and fourth quarters of 2020 have also been projected, but not as strong as the second 3-month”, the Governor said.

He stressed that the recovery is expected to come as early as the summer period, but positive figures will come in 2021.

Sejko explained that in parallel with these BSH projections, there are monitoring the country's financial, monetary and macroeconomic stability, which so far are on stable and well-capitalised indicators.

“We have a stable exchange course, financial markets are calm, and stable macroeconomic parameters will support growth of the economy along with incentives for fiscal ease and the support the government is addressing, for business and the economy. So far the crisis bill has been transferred from the private sector to the public, but we must be clear that this crisis will have an impact on all market actors”, Sejko said.