TIRANA, Nov. 8 (Xinhua) -- Albania's economic growth in 2020 is expected to reach 4.1 percent, Minister of Finance and Economy Anila Denaj said on Friday while presenting the 2020 draft budget at the Conference of Chairpersons at the Parliament of Albania.
The 2020 draft budget is based on a realistic macroeconomic framework, Denaj told the participants at the conference.
"The draft budget for 2020 will support reforms undertaken by the government promoting economic growth, employment, as well as improving the quality of services to the citizen and the European Union integration process," Denaj said.
According to her, the projected 4.1 percent economic growth will translate in more employment, aiming to create about 35,000 new jobs, as well as a further reduction of the unemployment rate below the current 11 percent.
Denaj stressed that public investments are planned at 4.7 percent of gross domestic product (GDP) or about 84 billion Albanian lek (around 753 million U.S. dollars).
"Providing a high level of public investments will support the economic growth and employment," the minister noted.
Total revenues in 2020 are estimated to reach 502.6 billion lek, up 6.2 percent or 29.2 billion lek more than the expected income for this year.
Moreover, Denaj said the projected budget expenditure for 2020 is about 532 billion lek or about 29.7 percent of GDP, registering an increase of around 5.1 percent compared to expected expenditures in 2019.
The sectors that will have the biggest support are education, health, agriculture and infrastructure, which are important to stimulate the potential growth of the economy, Denaj underlined.
However, the latest report of the World Bank (WB) on Albanian economy issued in October said that after expanding by 4.1 percent in 2018, annual economy growth for 2019 is projected to slow to 2.9 percent, as a drastic decline in rainfall will cut hydroelectric power production. Growth is projected to accelerate slightly to 3.4-3.6 percent by 2020-2021, the WB report read. (1 U.S. dollar = 111.57 Albanian lek)
