Businesses asked for more money for properties/ Liquidity and real estate dominated borrowing
Businesses in Albania started 2026 by financing mainly for short-term liquidity needs and real estate. According to data from the Bank of Albania, new loans to private non-financial corporations reached 40.05 billion lek in the January-February period, with an increase of 7.3% compared to the same period a year earlier.
Overdrafts held the main weight, reaching about 20.96 billion lek in the first two months of the year. This category accounts for about 52.3% of all new business loans, remaining the dominant form of financing. They are followed by real estate loans, with 9.10 billion lek or about 22.7% of the total, then working capital with 6.39 billion lek or 16%, and loans for the purchase of equipment with 3.59 billion lek, or about 9%. No new loans were issued for business start-ups in this period.
Compared to the beginning of last year, the strongest growth was recorded in real estate loans, which expanded by about 23.4%, increasing by about 1.72 billion lek. Loans for equipment purchases also increased by about 14.6%, while loans for working capital expanded by about 4.2%. On the other hand, overdraft remained almost at the same levels, with a slight increase of about 1.6%. This indicates that the expansion of credit at the beginning of the year was not only based on short-term financing, but also on the higher exposure of businesses to real estate and investments in equipment.
Another notable development is the shift of lending towards foreign currency. New loans in euros reached 18.49 billion lek and remained the largest item by currency, while loans in dollars increased significantly to 4.28 billion lek. In total, foreign currency financing accounted for about 56.8% of new business lending, compared to 43.2% for loans in lek. This indicates that at the beginning of the year, businesses relied more on foreign currency financing than on that in the local currency.
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