TIRANA, Oct 20 /ATA/ The Ministry of Finance and Economy published the 2023 draft budget, in which revenues are expected to reach 625.7 billion ALL, while expenditures will be 687.2 billion ALL.
In the report that accompanies the draft budget law, 2023 the economic growth is projected to be 2.6%, from the 3.7% expected this year.
After the strong recession in 2020, at the rate of -3.5%, the MoFE says that the economy has recovered strongly in 2021, at the rate of 8.5% and predicts to pursue the positive trend in the medium term.
“Economic growth is forecast at 3.7% for 2022 and is expected to continue to hover around 3.7% throughout the medium term. For 2023, it is predicted that economic growth will slow down to 2.6%, driven by developments and outlook for the global economy and especially that of the European Union,” the report says.
In 2023, the total revenue of the state budget are expected to reach 625.7 billion ALL, of which, revenue in tax collections will be 587.8 billion ALL and within the item of tax revenue, the tax and customs collections are forecast to be 431.2 billion ALL. Meanwhile, income from contributions are planned to be ALL 126.5 billion.
Public expenditures for 2023 are planned to be ALL 687.2 billion, or 31.6% of GDP.
Public Investments for 2023 are projected at the rate of 5.6% of GDP or 122.24 billion ALL (including the reconstruction fund in the amount of 5 billion ALL).
Planned expenditures include support for digitization and cyber security, completion of national road projects, national security, support of the water sector, health, education and the agriculture and rural development sector.
Referring to the forecasts of economic growth, as well as the planned budget deficit for 2023, the level of public debt in relation to GDP is expected to decrease by about 1.3% compared to the end of 2022.
Meanwhile, Prime Minister Edi Rama has announced that next year the government will stick to the policy of increasing wages and indexing pensions, as a measure to ease the burden of war-caused inflation on the families.
Also, Rama said that the companies in energy sector management will continue to be subsidized in order to keep unchanged the price of electricity for family consumers and small businesses.
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