TIRANA, Jan. 1 (Xinhua) -- Albanian Prime Minister Edi Rama, visited on Tuesday the newly born babies and handed over to the mothers the bonus baby checks, according to a law that entered into force on the first day of the year.
Under the new law, there is a reward for the birth of every child, starting from 40,000 Albanian lek (374 U.S. dollars) for the first child to 120,000 Albanian lek for the third child.
The 2019 budget allows for direct support for some 30,000 families who will benefit from the baby bonus for each newborn baby. A total of 2 billion Albanian lek (around 20 million U.S. dollars) are projected in the 2019 budget in support of this new policy.
On Sept. 26 last year, the prime minister announced that the new policy of the Albanian government in support of the Albanian families aimed to increase the country's shrinking population.
According to the Albanian National Institute of Statistics (INSTAT), the number of births in Albania, during the second quarter of 2018, decreased compared with the second quarter of 2017. Translated into figures, the population of Albania shrank by 0.2 percent, or nearly 15,000 people. (1 U.S. dollar=107.9 Albanian lek)
