Minister Ibrahimaj: Albanian exports on the rise, new policies to strengthen them
The Minister of Economy and Innovation, Delina Ibrahimaj, during the monthly media conference to analyze the latest economic indicators, emphasized that Albanian exports have marked a steady growth during 2025, reflecting the strengthening of the economic structure and the orientation towards value-added sectors.
According to official data from INSTAT and the Bank of Albania, the economy's total exports increased by 6.26% during the first 9 months of 2025.
Ibrahimaj noted that growth has been supported mainly by services exports, which account for around 85% of total exports and have increased by over 10.5%, with tourism as the main component.
During 2025, Albania was visited by over 12 million foreign tourists, turning tourism into one of the main pillars of exports and economic growth.
The Minister informed that, although exports of goods constitute about 15% of the total and have marked a decrease in value, this is mainly related to price fluctuations in international markets and not to a decrease in production activity.
In terms of volume, she said, heavy industry and domestic production have shown growth. As for specific sectors, exports of the “food, beverages and tobacco” group have increased by 5% in value and 7% in volume, showing positive momentum for both agriculture and the agro-processing industry.
Electricity exports, for the 12 months of the year, have increased by 6.8%, while the manufacturing sector has recorded a slight decrease of around 1%, which, according to the minister, is related to the need for modernization and transition towards closed-cycle production.
In this context, Minister Ibrahimaj stated that the Ministry of Economy and Innovation is orienting its policies towards increasing export competitiveness, diversifying markets and supporting high-productivity sectors, such as information technology, manufacturing and value-added services.
Minister Ibrahimaj announced that the government has approved the Export Development Strategy 2025–2030, which is based on four main pillars: promoting exports, simplifying and digitalizing trade procedures, harmonizing with European Union standards, and strengthening financial support for exporting companies.
"Our goal is for exports to remain a sustainable engine of economic growth, to increase the presence of Albanian products in international markets and to prepare businesses for full integration into the European common market," the minister said.
At the conference, the Minister also focused on other indicators of economic development, including economic growth, inflation, employment and fiscal stability, emphasizing that these indicators confirm the sustainability of the economy.
Below you can find the full speech of the Minister of Economy and Innovation, Delina Ibrahimaj:
Hello, I am glad you have come to the premises of the Ministry of Economy and Innovation to conduct an analysis of the latest economic data at our monthly conference to analyze, as I said, the latest economic developments. The figures that we will analyze today speak about the direction of the Albanian economy in recent times, but also about the policies that we have undertaken and will continue to pursue in order to guarantee the sustainability of growth.
The figures show that the Albanian economy throughout 2025 has shown macroeconomic stability, has shown that private sector activity has continued to grow and that we also have a business climate that encourages investments. Starting from the Gross Domestic Product, which for the third quarter, as we analyzed last time, increased by 3.75%, a value, a growth rate that is significantly higher than the average of the European Union, but also higher than the average of the region in which we live.
This is a significant figure, as it shows that the economy throughout the last years of the post-pandemic period has had a stable growth and has fluctuated between 3.5% and 4%. Meanwhile, we are living in a geopolitical situation that has uncertainties and, in fact, the main macroeconomic indicators of Europe point to this uncertain situation.
A key element of macroeconomic stability is prices. The price indicator, inflation throughout 2025, has increased by 2.2%, a rate that is within the limit or target of 3% of the Bank of Albania, which shows that prices have increased in line with the potential that the Albanian economy has. So, they have increased in a healthy way.
As for inflation, the EU average has been similar to inflation in the country.
The average inflation in EU countries for 2025 was 2.3%, while the main element that is most discussed and which we pay most attention to in designing our policies, food price inflation for 2025, has increased by 2.6%, slightly higher than the inflation of the entire basket of consumer goods.
Other elements that guarantee not only growth, but also sustainability and stability of the Albanian economy are public debt, which is a key indicator to measure the fiscal stability of the Albanian economy. It has been decreasing throughout recent years and in the third quarter of 2025 was 53.4%.
This level of debt is important to note because it not only guarantees macroeconomic stability, but also leaves us room to design policies and fiscal incentives in the future in order to further boost the country's economy.
On the other hand, foreign exchange reserves have been increasing throughout recent years. For the first 11 months of 2025, at the end of the 11-month period, they were 7.07 billion euros.
This is an important indicator, as it also shows a sign of economic stability in terms of cushioning potential crises that may come from abroad in the future.
Budget revenues have been increasing year after year. For the first 11 months of 2025, revenues were at the level of 688 billion lek, or 6.3% more than last year.
It is important to note that this level of income and this level of growth comes in a political framework where there has been no increase in the fiscal burden. So, it shows that economic growth is reflected in the increase in economic activity of businesses and also that all the efforts of the General Directorate of Taxes to reduce informality have yielded their results.
This growth is higher than economic growth, which means that expectations for the future continue to be high for the fourth quarter, i.e. for the end of 2025.
In line with the increase in income, the number of businesses has also increased. In 2025, we had 17,486 more businesses than in 2024, and meanwhile, business turnover has increased by 6% at the economy level, with some sectors growing faster than the economy in general, such as transportation, the service sector, or the construction sector.
The increase in the number of businesses, the increase in incomes has been reflected in the labor market indicators, which for the most recent figures, for the third quarter, have all been increasing. We have had an increase of 0.4 percentage points in the employment rate, an increase of 0.6 percentage points in labor force participation, while unemployment has remained at a stable level of 8.1%.
The number of contributors to the social security scheme for the third quarter of 2025 is 771,332 people, increasing by 2.95% compared to 2024.
It is important that all these figures that I just mentioned are reflected in a good distribution of income. So, the question that arises for each of us, as policymakers or even as citizens, is how this income is distributed and how much citizens benefit from this economic growth, how tangible is economic growth for all segments of the population and not just for business.
Disposable income is an indicator that summarizes several income indicators. It summarizes wage indicators, which for the third quarter of 2025 increased by 7.3%, or the average wage value in the economy for this quarter was 83,300 lek.
Pensions, on the other hand, in 2025 compared to 2024 have increased by 8.4% overall, while remittances have continued to increase. The increase has been 5.8%, a greater increase than the change in the exchange rate, which for 2025, the strengthening of the lek against the euro, has resulted in an annual level of 2.7%. This means that both in nominal and real terms, income from remittances has increased.
Personal income tax, also an indicator of the income of individuals and citizens, has increased by 26.5%, a significantly higher figure than last year. However, I want to dwell, in addition to the main presentation of the latest figures, on the structure of the economy.
Throughout the years, we have had an economy that has been focused on the services sector and contributing positively to the economy, but in the meantime, in terms of spending, the economy has been mainly based on individual consumption, family consumption, which constitutes about 70% of Gross Domestic Product.
The new development model to guarantee the sustainability of economic growth rates must focus on increasing investments, increasing exports, increasing productivity, and our policies will be guided around these three components throughout this four-year mandate, in order to guarantee sustainability, to guarantee a market that encourages investments, a market that benefits maximally from the European common market, from all the benefits of the European common market, and also a market that is directed towards those professions that are more productive and those sectors that have higher productivity and a greater capacity to maintain added value in the Albanian economy.
We will start with investments as an important component for the economy today, but also for what we expect from the economy in the future.
For the first 9 months of 2025, total investments in the economy increased by 4.2%, while a similar growth rate is also reflected in foreign direct investments.
The stock of foreign direct investment at the end of the first 9 months of 2025 is 1.2 billion euros and the continuous increase in the stock and flows of foreign direct investment in dispersed sectors, but with high potential for future development, indicates a confidence in the Albanian economy, both among Albanian and foreign investors.
On the other hand, in terms of financing, investments are supported by credit, which has increased by 14% in the first 11 months of this year. Investment credit guarantees not only the financing of investments in the current year, but also expectations for investments in the coming year.
I strongly believe that this is a figure that shows that business has increased confidence in the country's economic stability and this is the reason why credit continues to grow for the investment component.
Now I want to dwell a little longer on the components related to foreign trade and specifically exports, because in the last week, since the publication of INSTAT's figures on foreign trade, the opposition's arithmetic has presented an unfair and unrealistic scenario of what is actually happening in the economy.
I will start by talking about the structure of exports in the economy. 84.8%, almost 85% of exports are exports of services. So, the largest share of exports is related to services, which are mainly tourism-related services, so exports related to tourism and the number of foreign tourists in recent years has been increasing every year and in 2025 there were over 12 million foreign tourists who came to Albania.
On the other hand, trade in goods, exports of goods account for 15.2% of total exports. In total, exports in the economy have increased by 6.26% over the year, during the first 9 months of 2025. According to data from INSTAT and the Bank of Albania, exports of goods have decreased by 12.6%, while exports of services have increased by 10.53%.
Given that the weight of service exports is significantly greater than the weight of goods exports, in total, as I said, exports have resulted in a positive growth of 6.26%.
In services exports, a main component is tourism, which for 2025, i.e. for the first 9 months of 2025, has increased by 15%. Meanwhile, there are other important elements of services exports, which from year to year have been increasing their share in total exports, but also in total value added in the economy, such as exports of the IT sector, which have increased significantly in the last five years.
All the figures related to this sector continue to grow, the number of companies in this sector, the number of employees in this sector and I will stop here, as it is important that in terms of promoting those sectors with high productivity, this is specifically a sector that has high wages, so productivity is consequently high and in which the policies that we have followed over the past few years have been very encouraging and have yielded the results that we present today.
Now, of course, again regarding foreign trade and exports specifically, I want to focus on exports of goods.
I mentioned the components, I mentioned the distribution to show the reality of export data, and yet this does not mean today that we do not care and do not analyze every figure we have available in order to design the appropriate policies to target those sectors that may have weaknesses or may need support.
Last week, the "bad news accountants" said that agricultural exports have declined during 2025, that electricity exports have declined during 2025, and they also talked about fashion exports.
I will focus on each of these three components in turn.
Agricultural exports, according to INSTAT publications, are within the group "food, beverages, tobacco". The group "food, beverages, tobacco" for 2025 has had an increase of 5%, so the export of this group has had an increase of 5% in value and an increase of 7% in volume, which means that it is a group that continues to develop, continues to grow.
Within this group are agricultural exports, but also exports coming from the agro-processing industry, an industry that has been supported in recent years in various forms, either through budgetary funds or through sovereign guarantees, in order to increase both the number of enterprises operating in this sector, but also to increase the number of exports and the value generated in the country.
Within this group, agricultural exports have also seen a slight increase. So, not only the agro-processing sector, but also the agricultural sector has seen a slight increase.
As for electricity, for the first 12 months of the year, electricity exports increased by 6.8%. This is a component which, in the INSTAT publication, is within the group "minerals, fuels and electricity".
It is a group that represents heavy industry in the country and the truth is that during 2025 this group, as a whole, although electricity has increased, has decreased in value by 6.9%.
If we look at the figures in terms of volume, we will see that this group has been increasing in volume. The increase is not high, it is an increase of 1%. However, compared to last year, we had a larger volume of production in the country for this sector.
The difference between prices, i.e. value and volume, is mainly influenced by prices, and the prices of these items are prices that are linked to international exchanges.
So, it is the international conjuncture that most influences the effect of the difference between value and volume. However, the official INSTAT indicators show that activity for the 12 months of the year, in production numbers, that is, in weight and volume, has increased.
Now I will focus on the tailoring sector. It is a sector that for several years now we have discussed, analyzed and sat at various tables with representatives of tailoring associations in order to analyze every problem that comes from this sector.
I will talk first about the numbers and then about how we will approach this sector.
The figures show that for 2025 the total value of exports of the "textiles and footwear" group was around 104 billion lek. While in 2024 this value was a total of 105 billion lek. So, it is a decrease of about 1%. This is the decrease we are talking about.
In all the discussions we have had with this category, with the tailoring sector, since the beginning of time, since the effect of the exchange rate began to be felt, that is, since the lek began to strengthen, we have discussed the need for reform of this sector, the need for increasing machinery capacities, the need for automation of this sector, but above all, the need for this sector to produce products with a closed cycle, and we have been ready to support the sector in various ways.
And the truth is that there have been several sovereign guarantees that have been directed at this sector in order to support it with lending rates, with low lending interests, so that there would be as much investment as possible and as much closed-cycle product as possible.
Of course, like any other sector, there are some who managed to complete their production process in order for the product they produce to have a higher value and be sold at a higher value in international markets, and some others who were unable to make the product a closed cycle and who are certainly experiencing reductions in their exports or production.
Meanwhile, since last year, the Albanian government has undertaken an initiative related precisely to this industry.
The Ministry of Defense has created the company "Guna", which will specialize in the production of military and police clothing. These are garments that have a higher value than textile production in general, as they require a high level of specialization and also have a much higher purchase price.
The company has started recruiting the first people, who have already been recruited and are being trained and specialized in cooperation with our international partners, and this number is expected to increase to 300 employees. We want to produce for the needs of the country through this company, but mainly the goal is to export products through it.
In the business plan model that is envisaged for the "Guna" company, we foresee a very good relationship with all the capacities that exist in the market.
So, we see potential in collaborating with those companies that have the capacity, that can operate with the standards required by the market, and that will collaborate closely with the "Guna" company in order to join forces and give this sector another breath of fresh air.
I am convinced that at the end of two years we will have concrete results and we will talk about the method of cooperation and concrete figures in this sector.
Finally, regarding exports, I want to focus on their structure. We talk a lot about integration, about the European common market, but if we look at trade, trade is one of the sectors where we are already integrated, since about 70%, specifically 67.1% of the products that we export are exports to the European Union.
Meanwhile, year after year, the weight of exports to the Western Balkans has increased, aiming to create a common regional market and function as a common European market before full accession to the European Union, with common rules and facilitating trade between us.
On the other hand, the rest of the world accounts for about 15% of our total exports. However, based on all these analyses that we have done over the years, at the end of last year we adopted a policy related to the development of exports for the years 2025–2030.
The policy is focused on four main pillars: promoting exports, simplifying procedures and their digitalization, harmonizing production and exports with the standards of the European common market, and supporting exporting companies.
In detail, regarding promotion, there are two elements that I would like to mention. During this year, we will operationalize and strengthen the economic diplomacy component, which will aim not only to strengthen ties with existing markets, but also to penetrate new markets in order to diversify exports.
On the other hand, we will work to strengthen the role of the Albanian Investment Development Agency (AIDA) in order to be as active as possible in the process of promoting Albanian products.
Another component is the law that we will adopt within 2026 for "Made in Albania", which aims to promote domestic products at home and abroad, build and protect the "Made in Albania" brand, and promote exports of Albanian products.
The second element is simplification and digitalization. Part of the business costs in trade are related to procedures and non-tariff barriers. The process of digitalization of customs and state agencies operating at customs points is key to reducing these barriers.
For years, we have been working with the World Bank on a major project that aims to reduce customs processing times through the creation of a National Single Window, which will increase the efficiency of border crossings, reduce tariff and non-tariff barriers, and create more predictable rules for operators.
Another component of this project is faster customs transit, aimed at facilitating cross-border trade.
During 2025, the second phase of the project will begin, which will also focus on the modernization and digitalization of quality infrastructure.
This project is related to the third component, harmonization. We will ensure that Albanian businesses recognize and implement European Union standards, in order to more easily integrate into the European single market.
For this reason, this year we will adopt a program that prepares businesses for the European common market, which will inform, train and make available financial capacities to support businesses in achieving standards.
This program will aim to increase the competitiveness of Albanian products, facilitate access to EU funds and grants, and promote sustainable export growth.
Finally, regarding financial support, technical policies must be accompanied by financing instruments. We have talked about the law “On the Development Bank”, which will be a key instrument for financing business through loans, guarantees and export insurance.
Through the Development Bank, we will create instruments to promote and secure exports, to support product certification, and to invest in technology and digitalization, with a special focus on small and medium-sized enterprises.
All of these are elements that we will work on during this year and we will take care to inform businesses and the public, so that this program does not remain just on paper, but is followed through performance indicators.
These were the issues I had planned to present today. Each month we will try to focus on a single topic, so that the presentation of economic data is as in-depth and exhaustive as possible, in addition to the overall situation.
Thank you!
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