Albania C’Bank Warns Of Tough ’09

The governor of the Bank of Albania, Ardian Fullani, warned on Friday that 2009 will be a difficult year for Albania’s economy, due to the recession that has hit global markets.

“Although the banking system will continue to be profitable, the coming year will be full of unknowns,” Fullani said in a meeting with the bankers’ association. “It would be foolish to think that our economy would be affected only slightly by the global downturn.”

Albania’s state statistics agency announced a record-high GDP growth of 9.9 percent in the last four quarters ending September 30, but the accuracy of its data is widely disputed by economists.

A previous projection by the IMF for 2008 was for growth of 5.5 per cent, while the IMF has forecast that growth will slow down to between 3.5 and 4 per cent in 2009.

Economists have also expressed concern about the impact of the global financial crisis on migrants working abroad because their incomes remain crucial to Albania’s economic well being.

A study published on December 6, covering the first three-quarters of 2008, showed remittances of Albanian emigrants working abroad were down 13 per cent on the same period in 2007 to 623 million euros.

Source: Balkan Insight

Short URL: http://www.albanianeconomy.com/news/?p=1274

Posted by editor on Dec 19 2008. Filed under Banking & Finance, Economy, Invest-Inform, Top News. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0. You can leave a response or trackback to this entry