Albanian economy sees 2.8 pct growth in remittances in 2016

Remittances in the Albanian economy amounted to 615 million euros in 2016, a growth by 17 million euros, or 2.8 percent, over 2015, the Bank of Albania (BoA) said Monday.

In the last two years, remittances have recorded a slight recovery, following a gradual decline during the financial crisis.

The first half of 2016 saw a decline in remittances but the situation improved in the second half when the remittances marked a positive trend.

BoA experts said in the latest report published Monday that the higher inflows of remittances were reported in the last quarter, reaching 165 million euros.

However, such figures are far from the peak of remittances at 950 million euros per year reported a decade ago.

Experts attributed the decline to the truth that Albanian immigrants abroad have reduced the amount of money they send back to Albania after they settled down in the cities where they live.

It's a change compared with the situation 10 years ago, when in most of the cases, Albanian immigrants sought wealth overseas with their spouses and children left home.

But the slight growth of recent years can be attributed mainly to the definitive return of many Albanians from emigration, a return which is associated with the repatriation of the savings they have collected abroad.

According to the Bank of Albania, 2016 was also positive for foreign direct investment, which broke the record of 2013 with a value of 959 million euros.

The flow of foreign direct investment grew by 17.2 percent over 2015 and these facts are seen by economy experts as positive signals indicating a positive economic performance in 2017. Enditem