January 18 (SeeNews) - The Directorate-General for Economic and Financial Affairs (DG ECFIN) of the European Commisson said Albania's economy will expand by 3.5% in 2017, leaving unchanged its previous forecast unveiled in October.
Albania's economic growth is estimated at 3.2%, DG ECFIN said in its January 2017 EU Candidate & Potential Candidate Countries’ Economic Quarterly (CCEQ) Report.
In the third quarter, Albania recorded GDP growth of 3.1% on the year, following 3.3% economic expansion in the first quarter and 3.4% growth in the second quarter.
Albania registered a remarkable 19.1% export growth in the third quarter of 2016 driven mainly by increased exports of services reflecting a strong tourism season, DG ECFIN said.
The country's trade deficit shrank 13.7% year-on-year in the third quarter, as exports increased three times more than imports.
DG ECFIN forecasts consumer price inflation of 2.3% in 2017 and 2.6 in 2018 in Albania.
In the fourth quarter, consumer price inflation averaged 1.9%, unchanged from the previous quarter. In December, consumer prices rose 2.2%, which is the highest monthly inflation rate in 2016.
The economic and financial affairs directorate said that the accomodative monetary policy stance gave results, stimulating the lending growth. In August the private-sector credit growth was still negative, but it turned positive in the following months. The high level of non-performing loans continued to affect negatively the bank lending channel, even though it dropped to 20.4% in November, compared to 21.4% in August.
DG ECFIN also forecasts that Albania's unemployment rates will continue to decrease and will fall to 15.2% in 2017 and 14.2% in 2018.