Remittances in Albania down by 7.2 pct in H1

Remittances sent by Albanian immigrants working abroad to their families in Albania amounted to 282 million euros during the first half of the year, marking a decline of 7.2 percent compared to the first six months of 2015, data from Bank of Albania showed Wednesday.

Remittances in the second quarter amounted to 154 million euros, dropping by about 5 percent compared to the same period of the previous year, BoA said.

Banking experts explained that a possible downward trend in remittance growth could be due to the natural and gradual break of the immigrants connections with their families in Albania.

The remittances hit the highest level in 2007 while, following the global crisis in 2008, remittances saw a significant decline.

However, remittances started the upward tendency in the first half of 2015, increasing by 18 percent.

But during the second half of 2015 remittances slowed down mainly due to the economic crisis in Greece as the latter closed banks and risked exiting Eurozone.

For many years, remittances have been one of the driving forces of the Albanian economy. Endit