The World Bank said it expects Albania's gross domestic product (GDP) to grow by 3.3% in 2024, maintaining its April projection.

Albania’s economic growth is projected to accelerate slightly to 3.4% in 2025, The World Bank said in its new issue of the Global Economic Prospects report on Tuesday, affirming its April projection. Albania's economy expanded by an estimated 3.3% in 2023. From a regional perspective, the World Bank expects economic growth in the Western Balkans region to accelerate to 3.2% in 2024, from 2.5% estimated for 2023.

“Private demand is projected to be the main driver of growth, while the drag from weak net exports is expected to be less significant than in 2023, reflecting a pickup in exports alongside the euro area's recovery,” the World Bank said.

The new European Union growth plan is seen boosting the sub-region’s economic integration and socioeconomic alignment, according to the World Bank.

For the manager of the World Bank's office in Albania, Emanuel Salinas, the country's economic model needs transformation, being oriented by exports and the use of natural resources and not by the construction and consumption sectors.

During the welcoming speech held at the workshop "Sustainable Engineering in 360 degrees" organized in Tirana on Wednesday by the Italian Trade Agency (ITA) in cooperation with the Association of Engineering, Architecture and Technical-Economic Consulting in Italy (OICE), he positively evaluated the upward trend of the economy and poverty reduction, emphasized that Albania needs a new economic model to increase productivity and jobs.

"If you look at the composition of the GDP, the main weight is occupied by the construction and consumption sectors. For Albania to move from the middle level to the high level of per capita income, a transformation must take place. It needs to shift from low wages and low productivity to higher value-added and more export-oriented production.

The focus should be on the use of natural resources to increase productivity and investment. So for the transformation from construction and consumption to happen, the economy must be oriented towards the growth of exports.”

The manager of the World Bank office in Albania, Emanuel Salinas, also focused on the problem of the workforce, where according to him, in cooperation with the government, work is being done to increase the quality of education of young people and in the health sector.

There are three priorities of the World Bank in Albania: The first is to create jobs with high salaries. There are jobs in the construction sector, and in the catering sector, but no jobs are offered in other sectors. The second priority is human capital. This is important not only for the country but also for foreign companies coming to Albania. The third priority is the country's recovery, after the 2019 earthquake, the Covid-19 pandemic, or the energy crisis," he asserted.