TIRANA, March 7 (Xinhua) -- Albania saw a decline in electricity production during 2017, down by 36.6 percent compared to previous year, Albanian Institute of Statistics (INSTAT) said in its energy balance released Wednesday.
INSTAT experts noted that the drop in energy production came mainly as a result of the prolonged drought in the country last year.
The fall in production also lead to the increase of energy imports to cover the country's needs, INSTAT experts said.
INSTAT data showed that Albania's energy imports soared 86.3 percent.
According to the Energy Balance, the domestic net production during 2017 was 4,525 GWh, from 7,136 GWh of energy produced in 2016.
Given the low production, gross imports grew by 86.3 percent, while the amount of gross exports decreased by 73.9 percent compared to 2016.
