Albania’s Central Bank Troubled by Slow Growth
Business, Economy, Top News Tuesday, October 13th, 2009Tirana | 13 October 2009 | Gjergj Erebara
The governor of Albania’s Central Bank, Ardian Fullani, warns that the country is heading into a cycle of lower GDP growth.
He says this is due to the impact of the global economic crisis on the local economy.
“Albania is at risk of being caught in a vicious cycle of low growth rates during the next few years and should work to attract more direct foreign investments in order to resolve the structural problems created by the global financial and economic downturn,” Fullani told a meeting of executive directors of local private banks.
“Low credit volume from banks could bring low growth rates and low domestic savings,” Fullani warned, urging banks and business leaders to work together to avoid such a scenario.
On Saturday, Albania’s Construction Association – a powerful lobby that represents real estate developers – lamented the current low mortgage volume from banks, urging greater “public control of the banking industry”.
Fullani says Albania’s financial system coped well with the international crisis and that major problems, such as the liquidity crisis, seem to have been resolved.
During the last week, Albania’s currency, the lek, has dropped to levels not seen in years against the euro.
On Tuesday morning, one euro was worth 137.8 lek, a weakness caused by the “strong demand for hard currency in the interbank market”, according to an internal bank report obtained by Balkan Insight.
Fullani did not comment on exchange rate fluctuations. Source: Balkaninsight
Short URL: http://www.albanianeconomy.com/news/?p=2136
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I agree that we will have crisis times, but at my opinion we don’t need panic.
For more…we always have been listen that we have crisis. It’s not s.m.th new. The most important is to remain calm and to don’t scare the others that intend to invest.