2008 Balance of Payments Bulletin

For an 11-year period between 1996 and 2006, Albania’s current account deficit recorded an average annual figure of about EUR 300 million, with the lowest level recorded in 1996 and the highest in 2005. Excluding 1997, the current account deficit as a percentage of GDP was about 4 percent in the first five-year period and about 8 percent in the second. In 1997, the higher trade deficit and the lower current transfer inflows caused the current deficit to increase by threefold relative to the previous year.