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Albania
ECONOMY
Salient Features: Until 1991, centrally planned
Stalinist economy. Economic reforms crippled by economic and social
disintegration in early 1990s. In 1992, new Democratic government
announced "shock therapy" program to establish a market economy.
Gross Domestic Product (GDP): L16,234 million
in 1990, US$450 per capita, a drop of 13.1 percent from the previous
year; preliminary figures indicated a 30-percent drop for 1991.
Gross National Product (GNP): Estimated at US$4.1
billion in 1990; per capita income estimated in range US$600-
US$1,250; real growth rate not available.
Government Budget: Revenues US$2.3 billion;
expenditures US$2.3 billion (1989). Note: Albania perennially
ran a substantial trade deficit; government tied imports to exports,
so deficit seems to have been greatly reduced if not eliminated.
Labor Force: 1,567,000 (1990); agriculture about
52 percent, industry 22.9 percent (1987). Females made up 48.1
percent of the labor force in 1990.
Agriculture: Arable land per capita is the lowest
in Europe. Self-sufficiency in grain production achieved in 1976,
according to government figures. A wide variety of temperate-zone
crops and livestock raised. Up to 1990, Albania was largely selfsufficient
in food; thereafter drought and political breakdown necessitated
foreign food aid.
Land Use: Arable land 21 percent; permanent
crops 4 percent; meadows and pastures 15 percent; forest and woodland
38 percent; other 22 percent.
Industry: Main industries in early 1990s were
food products, energy and petroleum, mining and basic metals,
textiles and clothing, lumber, cement, engineering, and chemicals.
Natural Resources: Chromium, coal, copper,
natural gas, nickel, oil, timber.
Imports: US$255 million (1987 estimate). Major
commodities: machinery, machine tools, iron and steel products,
textiles, chemicals, and pharmaceuticals.
Exports: US$378 million (1987 estimate). Major
commodities: asphalt, bitumen, petroleum products, metals and
metallic ores, electricity, oil, vegetables, fruits, tobacco.
Trading Partners: Italy, Yugoslavia, West Germany,
Greece, East European countries, and China.
Economic aid: In fiscal year 1991 United States
government provided US$2.4 million; the European Community (EC)
pledged US$9.1 million; and Italy provided US$196 million for
emergency food aid, industrial inputs and the education system.
In July 1991 the EC enrolled Albania in its program for technical
assistance to former communist countries.
Currency: Lek (pl., leke); exchange rate in
January 1992 L50 per US$1.
Fiscal year: calendar year.
Data as of April 1992
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