The Albanian Parliament has approved the 2026 budget after a month of discussions in parliamentary committees, with 81 votes in favor and 16 against, in a session that closed after midnight.
During the review, dozens of amendments were submitted by MPs to increase funds for various projects, but none of them received majority approval.
The Minister of Economy stated that the amendments proposed by the opposition, which amounted to 278.9 billion lek, exceeded 10% of GDP and would violate fiscal consolidation objectives. The budget included only the requests of institutions previously approved in committees, with 12 of them benefiting from an additional 504.9 million lek, mainly in the justice sector.
In total, around 886.7 billion lek, or 8.8 billion euros, will be made available for health services, salaries, social support, pensions, education, agriculture, road transport, justice and security, within the framework of obligations to NATO, reports euronews.al.
Next year, the new pension increase formula is expected to be implemented, which will include monthly bonuses.
100 million euros are planned for these bonds, while 16.5 million euros will be used for indexation. The budget also foresees an increase in the minimum wage from 40 thousand to 50 thousand lekë and a 2.5% indexation of salaries in the public administration.
Public investments for 2026 are expected to reach around 1.8 billion euros, up from 1.6 billion euros this year. Meanwhile, 13.5 billion lek are foreseen for reimbursement of medications and 1.5 billion lek for oncology drugs.
Budget revenues are planned to increase to 8.2 billion euros from 7.7 billion euros currently, driven by economic growth, tourism and fiscal administration. Public debt for 2026 is expected to reach 14.9 billion euros. Economic growth is forecast to be 4%, supported mainly by tourism and construction.
The Ministry of Health has the largest budget, with 82.2 billion lek for all links of the health system. Next is the Ministry of Infrastructure with 77.2 billion lek, of which over 35 billion lek go to road transport. The Ministry of Education benefits from 64.8 billion lek for the education system, free textbooks and free transport for students and teachers. The Ministry of Defense will have 58.9 billion lek available, with an increase of almost 10 billion lek compared to this year. The Ministry of Economy benefits from 41.7 billion lek, while the Ministry of Interior benefits from 35.7 billion lek.
The agricultural sector continues to be underfunded, as the Ministry of Agriculture and Rural Development has 16.2 billion lek available, of which only 7.6 billion lek are earmarked for support schemes for farmers.
