Economy 2025, growth expectations in an election year - Wage under-declaration and informality, challenges to be faced
The balance of the development of Albania's economy for the year 2024, after the undeniable achievements and results, also reveals many structural and administrative problems. These are the challenges of the year that just started. The country's economy is growing but it is based on only 2 sectors, tourism and construction. According to official figures, it was these sectors that fueled the country's economic growth of 3.9% in the 9th month of 2024. Is this enough? Of course not. The economy is far below the utilization of its potential.
The clearest case of this is the agricultural sector. For many reasons, agriculture has entered a spiral of crisis and its contribution to the economy is negative. In the absence of domestic production, economic growth is threatened by external factors. Apart from agriculture, for many reasons including the lack of labor force, all domestic production is in crisis. Fasons are severely experiencing the devaluation of the euro.
But not only that. This year's challenges remain the inherited problems in the economy, such as the reform of the pension scheme, the fight against informality, price stability, environmental protection from the high volume of tourism, and the management of general parliamentary elections that have a significant impact on the economy.
With 800,000 insured employees and 725,000 pensioners, the pension scheme has serious effects on public finances. The problematic relationship between contributors and beneficiaries calls for deepening the fight against severe under-declaration of wages.
But in addition to numerous problems, the country's economy has plenty of room for hope.
Positive developments, especially in tourism and construction, have brought a significant increase in wages and, as a result, in consumption. Official figures from the Ministry of Finance show that per capita income increased by 506 euros from 9,067 euros in 2023 to 9,573 euros in 2024.
As a result of the positive performance of the economy, the state treasury collected more money in 2024 than in 2023. This creates the premises for a more successful economic year, for investments, health services, for salaries, for support schemes for families in need, pensions, education, employment, security, agriculture, road transport, justice and even expenses for parliamentary elections of 2025. The 2025 budget has made a full 825 billion ALL available to be spent.
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