How does unfair competition affect formal businesses? - Gjokutaj: Informality directly affects the expansion of activity
According to the Investment Council survey, since 2017 to date, the perception of informality in the country remains stable and high: 7 out of 10 companies declare that informality is present in the market.
But how does unfair competition affect businesses that operate formally?
Eduart Gjokutaj, Economic Expert: "Undoubtedly, the phenomenon of informality in itself has remained constant. We have an approach that, although there is a tendency to fight it, has not changed. It seems discouraging that in the reports of the State Department on the investment climate, what the Investment Council in Albania mentions, or what the EC in its reports. Among those negative effects that exist, we mostly see the structural way of the economy, or businesses. Informality does not allow them to expand."
But on the other hand, is formal business being discouraged by these phenomena?
"The impact is very high and direct for the simple reason that it affects the type of market that formal businesses also operate in. From what is rightly mentioned to you, by the investment council, in terms of perceptions, about 80% of businesses complain that competition is such that it affects their daily lives. Among the direct effects, they have to do with market division, where that part of the market that is called informal, directly affects the formal market due to lower costs and lower prices, with that part that has to do with construction, tourism, accommodation, etc."
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