"Albania, strong economic performance" - IMF: Challenges, rapid population aging, emigration, low productivity
The Executive Board of the International Monetary Fund (IMF) recently praised Albania's strong economic performance, supported by prudent macroeconomic policies and booming tourism.
The report published on Tuesday, following the mission held in November, emphasizes that the outlook remains favorable with broadly balanced risks, but structural challenges are related to the rapid aging of the population, emigration, and low productivity.
The IMF Board underlines the importance of maintaining macroeconomic stability, while advancing reforms, to accelerate convergence with the EU and promote sustainable and inclusive growth.
Maintaining a modest annual primary surplus alongside continued efforts to strengthen debt management would reinforce fiscal sustainability. The IMF welcomes progress in the authorities’ medium-term revenue strategy, but stresses that sustained reforms to revenue administration and tax policies are needed to address growing expenditure needs. “Public investment and fiscal risk management reforms, particularly regarding state-owned enterprises and public-private partnerships, remain critical for fiscal transparency,” the IMF underlines.
The global financial institution is calling on Albania to undertake deeper reforms to maximize the benefits of its EU accession process. “Policies should focus on increasing productivity, fostering global value chain integration, removing barriers to firm growth, and promoting access to bank lending,” the statement said. Further efforts to upgrade education and training programs, advance the digital agenda, boost female participation in the workforce, and diversify renewable energy sources would also be important. At the conclusion of the assessment for Albania, the IMF Executive Board said that continued investment in infrastructure and governance reforms, including the implementation of the 2024–2030 Anti-Corruption Strategy and further implementation of international AML/CFT standards, are also key priorities.
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