In his remarks in parliament, Prime Minister Rama stressed that “referring to what was said here since the IMF was mentioned, I have the IMF statement at the end of the mission and I quote briefly:

Albania’s economy has shown considerable resilience in the face of the 2019 earthquake and the pandemic. After a terrible 2020, activity is rebounding strongly. Policies have played a critical role in preserving lives and livelihoods and thereby paving the way for the recovery. With a renewed mandate, the government is well positioned to address these challenges and enlist the support of all stakeholders in society to that effect.

“The IMF says that after a contraction of 4% in 2020, which is much less than the initial estimate and is way less than your prediction. The economy is rebounding strongly with a growth of 7.8% in 2021 and take note here that it will be over 8%, driven by the continuous support of monetary and fiscal policies, reconstruction, the reduction of movement restrictions, etc., ” Rama underlined, adding that this is the IMF view in Albanian and English.

“Today you did not repeat the same old story that the prices have increased only in Albania because the prices have increased everywhere, since you brought up Kosovo next time you did not mention it again today because the prices have soared in Kosovo, North Macedonia, in the whole region up to America. The whole world is talking about a global crisis, it is not local, it has affected the large countries, the small ones, the rich and poor countries. It is my duty, I have done it and will always speak openly to the people and especially when the whole country will face a crisis of this nature, ” – Rama added.

PM went on saying that “the price for household consumers and others did not increase, what do you mean by saying there is no crisis, the cost has not increased, there is crisis, you will see in the days to come, not only the price of energy has increased exponentially, but the problem that the country is facing is the shortage of power supply in relation to the demand which means you may be willing to pay even more, but you may not find the amount of energy you need. ”

Rama said amongst others that “those 200 million are not debt, but a guarantee instrument to protect Albanians, not to charge the crisis to Albanians, but to make sure that the increasing cost will not hit the pockets of Albanian families.”

/k.s/sm/