Service sectors in Albania were hardest hit by the coronavirus (Covid-19) pandemic in the second quarter of 2020, according to the latest data reported on Wednesday by the National Institute of Statistics (INSTAT).

INSTAT data showed that the most affected businesses in this period were travel agencies, bars and restaurants as well as hotels.

According to INSTAT report, the turnover volume index for the travel agencies decreased by 85.6% year-on-year in the second quarter. In this sector the number of employees and wages dropped by 12.1% and 22.2% year-on-year, respectively.

In the hotel sector, the turnover volume index decreased by 63% year-on-year in the second quarter of 2020.

The index of the number of employees and wages in hotels in this period decreased by 20.2% and 24.3% respectively compared with the April-June period of 2019.

Meanwhile, the turnover volume index for bars and restaurants in the period under review registered a decrease of 55.2% compared with the same quarter of 2019. And the index of the number of employees and wages for the sector dropped by 31.8% and 30.7% year-on-year, respectively.

In this period, the transport sector contracted by 40.8% compared with the second quarter of 2019.

Less affected in this period, according to INSTAT data, were information and communications sectors, which contracted by 5.9%.

The Covid-19 pandemic and the resulting lockdown from mid-March to the end of May has hit hard the Albanian economy. According to INSTAT data, the Albanian economy shrank by 2.5% in the first quarter.

On Thursday, health authorities reported 144 new coronavirus cases, bringing the total number of confirmed Covid-19 cases in the country to 11,816, with 6,733 recoveries and 343 fatalities.

Construction Opposes Negative Trend

There was a 2.5% year-on-year increase in the turnover volume index in Albania’s construction sector in the second quarter of 2020, and a 2.0% rise in the production volume index, the state statistics office, INSTAT said in a report on Wednesday.

This compares with the negative performance of all other productive sectors in the quarter, for part of which Albania was under a strict lockdown to contain the Covid-19.

Industry, comprising manufacturing, mining and quarrying, saw the turnover volume index decrease by 20.5% y/y, and the production volume index by 22.8%.

For electricity, gas and steam production there was a drop of 18.1% for the turnover volume index and 24.2% for the production volume index.

There was an even deeper decrease of 27.5% in the turnover volume index in the water supply, sewerage, waste management and remediation sector, and a fall of 31.6% in the production volume index.