In recent days, an international delegation of the IMF led by Anita Tuladhar has visited Tirana to review the end of the three-year agreement with Albania. In her speech, Tuladhar gave the IMF’s final recommendations to Albanian institutions:
- The government needs to keep the public debt under control and has to work harder to lower it. The public debt has fallen, but continues to be higher than 70% of the GDP.
- The high level of problematic loans and the drop in businesses applying for credit is still a big problem. The level of bad loans remains above 20%, which slows down giving out loans to companies. The government needs to make larger effort to lower the number of problematic loans, especially by improving the law on bankruptcy and private executors.
- In order to improve the business climate, structural reforms, judicial reforms, the enforcement of property rights, improvement of the infrastructure and education, and workforce qualification need to me implemented as soon as possible.
- The government needs to keep public spending under control. They have to be as efficient as possible.
- The government needs to find a solution to collection of property taxes on the basis of the market value.
The executive board of the IMF is expected to discuss in February the transfer of the ninth and tenth installment (around €72 million), the final ones of its agreement with Albania.
Minister of Finance Arben Ahmetaj stated that a second agreement with the IMF will be discussed after the elections in June.
