According to INSTAT’s quarterly report, the seasonally-adjusted indicator also rose 1.5% compared with the previous third quarter of 2024.

The annual change by 7.8% in retail sales volume was mainly driven by fuel sales that edged up by 13.7% during the reviewed period.

The turnover of food, beverages and tobacco sales in both specialized and non-specialized stores has contributed 4.6 percentage points, while the volume of non-food products accounted for 5.9% in overall turnover compared to the same period of 2023.

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According to INSTAT’s Wage Statistics, the economic activities offering a gross monthly average wage higher than the national average wage in the fourth quarter of last year were financial and insurance activities and information and communication.

Data show that the average wage in the construction sector recorded highest growth by 14.9% compared to the same period of the previous year, whereas wages in information and communication sector rose 5.9% in the fourth quarter of 2024.

In the fourth quarter of 2024, the average gross wage for the activity group of managers, lawmakers, senior public administration employees, and executive managers, as well as professionals offer higher gross average wages compared to the average wage at a national level.

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According to a recent INSTAT’s preliminary Demographic Indicators report, Tirana recorded highest natural growth of population during this period with 799 births more than deaths, whereas Korça, southeastern Albania, saw the lowest growth rate with 211 deaths more than births.

During the fourth quarter, seven districts across Albania recorded positive population natural growth, while such figure was negative in five districts.

According to INSTAT, the population of Albania in the fourth quarter of 2024 totaled around 2.402.113, with 49.6% of them males and 50.4% females.

According to the population census in 2023, Albania’s population declined with around 420 000 people less than in 2011, when the country’s population totaled 2.821.977 people.

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According to central bank, the lending to economy rose 15.8% in the third quarter of 2024, taking the annual average growth of bank lending to 14.4%.

Credit expansion continues to be broad-based, covering the needs of businesses and households, both for investment and consumption and working capital. At the same time, the non-performing loan ratio has kept falling.

Albania’s banking sector disbursed a total of 47.8 billion lek in new lending to economy in December, recording highest rate of monthly loans granted by banks.

Central bank noted that the lending prospects for this year remain positive, driven by the expected improvement of the country’s real economy, good financial health of the banking sector and the continued accommodative monetary policy pursued by the Bank of Albania.

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The Bank of Albania said in its latest Lending Survey that the business demand for bank lending was higher compared to the third quarter of 2024.

Central Bank’s Lending Survey found that banks reported unchanged lending standards for investments and liquidities, while commercial banks increased lending in the last quarter of the previous year.

Banks eased lending standards for households and consumption loans.

According to Central Bank, in the last quarter of 2024, lending standards remained unchanged, both in terms of business size and in terms of the purpose of using the loan: to finance investments or to cover liquidity needs.

Central Bank noted that household loan demand to cover consumption and real estate purchase was high in the last quarter of 2024.

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Central bank said that the slower surge in prices of food items drove to the drop of inflation, while fuel and rent prices have been increasing and inflation of other basket items was relatively stable.

From the macroeconomic perspective, the inflation decline in the fourth quarter reflected the reduced domestic inflationary pressures.

This fall has reflected both the effect of the high comparative base of the previous year, as well as the consequences of the normalization of the monetary policy stance so far. On the other hand, the external inflationary pressures have been increasing in the fourth quarter of 2023 – despite the exchange rate strengthening, due to the fast upsurge in prices of energy products across international markets.

However – according to central bank – the domestic inflationary pressures – though trending downwards – remain relatively high, yet not in line with the Bank’s price stability target.

This performance is dictated by the relatively high demand in goods and services, which in turn keeps profit margins high, as well as by the fast rise in wages, which is further translated into increased production cost.

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