Albania Seeks New Commercial Loan

Finance Minister Ridvan Bode

Tirana- The Ministry of Finance of Albania opened a bid for a commercial loan ranging from 200 to 250 million Euro for the next year, due to fears that economic downturn can cause problems in state revenues.

“The Albanian Government represented by the Ministry of Finance is requesting an offer for financing of various capital expenditure needs for the year 2009,” said the ministry of finance in a press release.

“Proceeds of the credit will be used in accordance with the priorities defined in the National Strategy for Development and Integration”, the statement added.

Interested investors should submit their proposals by Jan 15. The new loan will be used mainly to finance the Durres-Kukes highway, which is under construction by US-Turkish consortium Bechtel-Enka.

Previously, Albania intended to finance the road by its revenues from privatization. But negotiations for the selling of Albanian Power Distribution Company, OSSH have been halted, while state revenues can be lower in 2009, due to the sharp decrease of prices of imported commodities.

Albania has issued its first foreign currency denominated bond in 2006. On March 2007, Albania received a syndicated loan of 230 million euro from Alpha Bank and the National Bank of Greece, with interest rate Euribor + 1.25 per cent.

Short URL: http://www.albanianeconomy.com/news/?p=1367

Posted by editor on Dec 23 2008. Filed under Banking & Finance, Business, 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