TIRANA, December 22/ATA/ Minister of Finance and Economy Delina Ibrahimaj presented today in the Parliament the changes in this year’s budget, through which there are supported the reconstruction program after the earthquake, as well as the infrastructure development projects.
In her speech, Ibrahimaj said that the changes are aimed at reflecting additional income beyond the end-of-year forecasts of 5 billion lekë, as a result of the satisfactory performance of the realization of their items for the 10-month 2022, reaching the level of 581.8 billion lekë.
This act, according to the minister, also ensures adjustments between the items of budget expenditures, aiming to optimize their realization for the remainder of 2022, with a net increase of 5 billion lekë, as well as keeping unchanged the budget deficit and public debt.
Ibrahimaj said that the economy has performed relatively well throughout 2022, showing a stabilization of economic activity.
“Economic growth during the first 6 months of 2022 was about 4.17%”, said Minister Ibrahimaj.
Even the developments in the labor market so far, the minister said, have been relatively positive.
“Unemployment in the third quarter of 2022 is 10.8%, compared to 11.6% for the same 3-month period of last year. Inflation for the month of November was 7.9%, significantly lower than in the countries of the region, or than the average of the countries of the European Union. Non-performing loans have continued to decrease, marking at the end of October the level of about 5.0% from the 8% they marked about two years ago”, she emphasized.
On the expenditure side, the changes consist of an increase of 30.2 billion lekë in general expenditure, reaching the level of 665.7 billion.
The minister stated that the additions to the budget expenditures go to the most important sectors, such as: reconstruction, infrastructure, state police, agriculture./j.p/p.s./
