The Albanian Minister of Finance, Ervin Mete, during his speech at today's session of the Assembly, stated that the Normative Act for amendments to the 2024 Budget reflects the necessary changes within the reorganization of the ministries.
Also, this Normative Act makes some changes regarding income and expenses, to reflect the increase in income and optimization of expenses, as well as reducing the budget deficit at the same time.
Minister Mete said that the economy had a very good performance during 2023 and that this good progress is continuing in the first months of 2024.
"Economic sentiment, business and consumer perception, has reached historically high levels. Also, other consumption and investment indicators suggest accelerated growth. During 2023, we revised upward the projections for the real growth of 2023 to 3.5% from 2.6% which was the initial forecast, this was also confirmed by the World Bank and the IMF, who also revised upward their forecasts for the economy during 2023. The good performance of the economy is also reflected in the labor market. Employment increased, while the unemployment rate at the end of 2023 dropped to 10.7%, one of the lowest historical rates," said Minister Mete, among other things.
He also said that inflation was lower than in the countries of the region or the average of the European Union, dropping to 2.6% in February. Also, in 2023, the country's economy recorded a current account surplus for the first time, and expectations are for a significant improvement compared to historical trends. This, also influenced by the extraordinary growth of tourism, as well as foreign direct investments.
"Fiscal consolidation marked another positive achievement. Public debt, a key indicator of the sustainability of public finances, fell below the 60% level of GDP, reaching 59.2% at the end of 2023, the lowest level since 2010. This improvement, in addition to reducing the cost of borrowing , increases the security of the country to cope with possible future attacks," the minister further said.
"Significant improvement, - he added, has also marked the pension scheme, where the contribution income reached 134 billion ALL in 2023, double the level from the beginning of the reform in 2015". Specifically, the deficit of the pension scheme has been reduced to 0.8% of GDP in 2023, which is the lowest level ever recorded, from 1.93% of GDP in 2015, when the pension reform began. "
This good performance, - said the Minister of Finance, continues in the first months of 2024, where according to the data for the period January-February, the total income reached about 104 billion ALL, or 4.9% above the plan.
"With the Normative Act presented today, revenues for 2024 have been revised upwards, reaching 28.2% of GDP, which is the highest historical target level. As for public expenditures, for the year 2023, they reached nearly 675 billion ALL, with a 95.6% realization according to the annual plan amended by the normative act of December," underlined Mete.
An important part of this Normative Act is the support through the State Guarantee Instrument, in the amount of 4 billion ALL for businesses in the fashion processing industry sector.
Minister Mete informed that the 2024 budget will continue the support for a significant increase in salaries, making it possible to achieve the objective set for an average salary level of 2024 euros per month within the year 900. The minister emphasized that within the next month, the decisions will be detailed to specify the anticipated salary increase for public sector employees.
Also, in the 2024 budget, further indexation of pensions will be carried out, as well as the distribution of the year-end bonus for 717 thousand pensioners.
The Education and Health sectors will continue to be financed at the level above 3% of GDP. As for the Defense sector, for the first time the objective related to the commitments made within NATO was reached, bringing the defense budget to 2% of GDP.
