The Minister of Finance, Petrit Malaj, presented on Monday to the Assembly the draft budget for 2025, which he said is two times higher than 2013, with a total of about Euro 8.2 billion.

"The Albanian economy is producing, creating more jobs. At the end of 2024, unemployment is expected to drop to 10.2%, and by 2025, the unemployment rate is expected to drop to 9.8% of the active labor force. Salaries in the public sector have increased significantly…bringing the average salary in the public sector to Euro 900. Also, the private sector has all the space to follow such a vision, as our economy will have to become more and more attractive. In this way, we would be able to address one of the most important challenges even more easily, that of demography," he declared.

Malaj said that the draft budget for 2025 fully materializes the main objectives of the fiscal policy, through a positive primary balance, the reduction of public debt, targeting 2025 a debt level of 55.8% of GDP from the 56.3% expected for 2024 and a productive ratio between the total net borrowing of the budget and the capital expenditure of the central government, realizing a positive current balance of 3.6% of GDP.

"As far as the economic perspective is concerned, in our basic macro-fiscal programming scenario for 2025, we foresee an economic growth of 3.9%. This growth will be generated mainly by domestic demand, both from private consumption and from total investment in the economy. At the same time, we expect the net foreign demand to contribute positively, especially due to the increase in exports, including the export of goods, but again with a special role of service exports mainly related to the tourism sector," declared the minister.

Regarding the medium-term risks, Malaj said they remain generally balanced and manageable.

Budget revenues for 2025, the minister emphasized, are expected to be Lek 754.6 billion or 28.8% of GDP. Compared to the revised plan for 2024, budget revenues for 2025 are predicted to be Lek 40.6 billion more.

According to Malaj, the expenses for 2025 are estimated at Lek 822.7 billion or 31.4% of the Gross Domestic Product, with an increase of Lek 51.4 billion, compared to the 2024 plan.

The minister said that expenses for subsidies are estimated at Lek 1.85 billion. According to him, state subsidies for the year 2025 are focused on promoting employment, investments in water supply and sewerage, expenses for railway activity, etc.

Furthermore, the Social Security Scheme for 2025 is estimated at Lek 192.3 billion or 7.3% of GDP.

Focusing on public investments, Malaj said that for 2025, the government will continue to maintain a significant weight in the state budget, as long as the need for expanding and improving the quality of public assets remains high.