TIRANA (Albania), June 19 (SeeNews) – Foreign direct investment (FDI) to Albania is expected to amount to $1 billion (862 million euro) in 2018, finance and economy minister Arben Ahmetaj said.
The positive performance of foreign and domestic investments reflects the growth of the Albanian economy in the last 4-5 years, Ahmetaj said in a video file posted on his official Facebook page on Monday.
FDI to Albania rose 62% year-on-year to 283.5 million euro in the first quarter of 2018, the central bank said last week.
The net inflow of FDI increased by 22.1% in the January-March period compared to the previous quarter.
In 2017, FDI to Albania fell to 907 million euro, compared to 943 million euro in 2016.
In May, the European Commission lowered its projection for Albania's economic growth in 2018 to 3.6 % from 3.8% forecast in November 2017.
Albania’s robust economic expansion is set to continue with private consumption as the most important growth driver, based on rising employment, higher wages and above-average consumer confidence, the European Commission said in its Spring 2018 Economic Forecast.
Currently, Albania's economy is driven by two big energy projects - the construction of the Trans-Adriatic Pipeline (TAP) designed to transit natural gas from Azerbaijan to Italy via Albania, and works on a hydropower plant on the Devoll river.
($ = 0.86179 euro)