From Switzerland and the Netherlands, to Turkey and Italy/ How did the map of foreign currency in Albania change over a decade?
Over the past ten years, foreign direct investment in the country has undergone a significant transformation in both quantity and structure. In 2014, capital flows from abroad amounted to around 869 million euros, while by the end of 2024 they had risen to over 1.5 billion euros. Investments have increased by over 80% over the decade, which translates into an average annual growth of around 6%. However, according to the analysis of “Scan Intel”, in addition to the simple numerical growth, the last decade has shown a clear shift in the profile of these investments, both in terms of investor countries and sectors where capital is concentrated.
At the beginning of the period, the panorama was dominated by countries such as Greece, the Netherlands, Switzerland and Turkey, which carried the main weight of the flows. Over the years, their role transformed significantly. Italy, for example, emerged as an increasingly important actor, especially after 2020, marking steady growth. Another surprise was Kosovo, which from an almost negligible source in 2014 turned into a significant investor, injecting over 95 million euros in 2024. Turkey and Germany also significantly increased their presence in recent years, bringing new capital especially in the period 2023-2024. Meanwhile, Greece lost the role it had at the beginning of the decade, while the Netherlands remained a traditional center of global capital channeling, albeit with large fluctuations from year to year.
If the panorama by origin has changed, equally significant is the transformation by economic sector. Until the middle of the decade, the extractive industry and electricity held the main weight, absorbing giant projects that often explained the unusual peaks of FDI. These sectors remained important, but after 2020 a clear shift towards more sustainable and long-term activities was observed. Real estate, for example, from a sector with a modest weight of 50 million euros in 2014, grew to almost 380 million euros in 2024, reflecting the boom in the real estate market and the confidence of foreign investors in this area. Financial services and insurance followed a similar path, going from low levels to over 280 million euros by the end of the period, which indicates a deepening of the domestic financial sector under the influence of foreign capital. Another significant development is the processing industry, which, although initially only accounting for 37 million euros in investments per year, rose to over 170 million euros in 2024, signaling a new orientation towards production and the creation of added value.
This sectoral diversification does not diminish the importance of the extractive industry or energy, which remain the main pillars, but shows that investments are no longer limited to natural resources or large single projects.
In geographical terms, the connection with the regional neighborhood has been significantly strengthened. Italy, Kosovo and Turkey are not only trading partners, but increasingly also active investors, bringing capital that is directly related to the economic integration of the region.
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