Albania on the path to success?

Albania is reaping the rewards of continuing economic success, argues one company…

And while it has a great deal of progress still to make to free itself from the status of the continent's poorest country, Property Secrets believes it is ‘firmly headed in the right direction’.

Central Bank Governor Ardian Fullani announced last month that the country now had a realistic chance of making a serious application to join the EU within a decade as FDI continues to drive growth and the government continues to liberalise the economy.

Ten years may sound like a long time, but many pre-accession benefits come to those countries perceived as being solidly on track to join the EU. In Albania's case, these monetary benefits would make a dramatic and rapid difference.

Working hard to improve

Albania was last month invited to join NATO - an essential precursor to being taken seriously as an EU candidate. It was praised by NATO for being a 'voice of moderation in the region'. The NATO invitation will only serve to boost business confidence and investment in the country

The country has worked hard to improve its woeful infrastructure and attract more FDI. And it's worked. FDI will go up this year to 6%+ of GDP and as a sign that the country is gaining in confidence and reputation it has already started issuing international bonds in the Albanian currency and was due to sell its first euro-denominated bond in May - a sure sign of increased confidence.

A growing economy

The economy grew around 6% in 2007 with inflation at a low 2.5%. The budget deficit is under 4% of GDP. The current account deficit stands at around 12%, but is easily met by remittances from overseas, officially estimated by the central bank as having doubled over the last five years to €1 billion, or 11% of GDP.

The real remittance figure, though, is a great deal higher as many thousands of Albanians overseas fly home regularly carrying cash. A great deal of this cash is going into the most secure investment Albanians can find - property.

A spokesperson for Property Secrets commented: “We forecast much the same level of growth for 2008, 6%, with a slight pick up in 2009”.