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Albanian economy expands by 3.3 pct in Q3 of 2014

Xinhua, January 14, 2015 Adjust font size:

Albanian economy expanded by 3.3 percent year-on-year in the third quarter, local media cited a report by the European Commission (EC) as saying on Tuesday.

All main sectors of Albanian economy have provided positive contribution, with the biggest one coming, similarly to the previous quarter, from services driven mainly by a booming trade, hotels and restaurants sector which has expanded by 10.4 percent year-on-year.

Construction in Albania expanded by 7.5 percent in annual terms, reversing the steep fall seen in the first half of the year.

The industrial sector also managed to overturn its second-quarter contraction, although its growth rate, at 2.5 percent year-on-year, was much below the average of the past years due to weaker electricity production.

The growth of agriculture was also subdued at 1.2 percent year-on-year. These data, supported also by retail trade indicators, confirm that the strengthening of private consumption continues and drives much of the re-acceleration of growth.

The unemployment rate dropped to 17.4 percent in the third quarter from 17.7 percent recorded in the previous three months. It was still up by 0.2 percentage points in annual terms. Total employment growth accelerated to 8.2 percent year-on-year in the third quarter from 1.6 percent in the previous three months.

The non-agricultural private sector registered the highest increase in employment (12.1 percent year-on-year), but agriculture continued to account for nearly half of all jobs. Overall, the rate of job creation was still below the pace of increase of the labor force, which expanded by 8.5 percent year-on-year. Enditem.