Overview: As the poorest country in Europe, Albania's development lags behind even the least favored areas of the Yugoslav economy. For over 40 years, the Stalinist-type economy has operated on the principles of central planning and state ownership of the means of production. In recent years Albania has implemented limited economic reforms to stimulate its lagging economy, provide incentives, and decentralize decisionmaking. In an effort to expand international ties, Tirane has reestablished diplomatic relations with the Soviet Union and the US. The Albanians have also passed legislation allowing foreign investment. Albania possesses considerable mineral resources and, until 1990, was largely self-sufficient in food; several years of drought have hindered agricultural development. Numerical estimates of Albanian economic activity are subject to an especially wide margin of error because the government until recently did not release economic information.

GNP: $4.1 billion, per capita $1,250; real growth rate NA% (1990 est.)

Inflation rate (consumer prices): NA%

Unemployment rate: NA%

Budget: revenues $2.3 billion; expenditures $2.3 billion, including capital expenditures of NA (1989)

Exports: $378 million (f.o.b., 1987 est.); commodities--asphalt, bitumen, petroleum products, metals and metallic ores, electricity, oil, vegetables, fruits, tobacco; partners--Italy, Yugoslavia, FRG, Greece, Czechoslovakia, Poland, Romania, Bulgaria, Hungary

Imports: $255 million (f.o.b., 1987 est.); commodities--machinery, machine tools, iron and steel products, textiles, chemicals, pharmaceuticals; partners--Italy, Yugoslavia, FRG, Czechoslovakia, Romania, Poland, Hungary, Bulgaria, GDR

External debt: $NA

Industrial production: growth rate NA

Electricity: 1,690,000 kW capacity; 5,000 million kWh produced, 1,530 kWh per capita (1990)

Industries: food processing, textiles and clothing, lumber, oil, cement, chemicals, basic metals, hydropower

Agriculture: arable land per capita among lowest in Europe; one-half of work force engaged in farming; produces wide range of temperate-zone crops and livestock; claims self-sufficiency in grain output

Economic aid: Western (non-US) countries, ODA (1988) $5.8 million

Currency: lek (plural--leke); 1 lek (L) = 100 qintars

Exchange rates: leke (L) per US$1--8.00 (noncommercial fixed rate since 1986), 4.14 (commercial fixed rate since 1987)

Fiscal year: calendar year

NOTE: The information regarding Albania on this page is re-published from the 1991 World Fact Book of the United States Central Intelligence Agency. No claims are made regarding the accuracy of Albania Economy 1991 information contained here. All suggestions for corrections of any errors about Albania Economy 1991 should be addressed to the CIA.