INSTAT reviews growth of 2015 business sales to 3.6% from the previously declared 4.7%

Albanian businesses increased their sales by 3.6% for 2015.

The final data of Structural Business Survey 2015, published by the Institute of Statistics INSTAT, has corrected downward the level of growth sales in the economy.

In November last year, INSTAT reported an increase of 4.7%.

The revised figures show that the rate of sales growth in the economy is considerably lower compared with growth of 6.3% in 2014.

Weaker growth in sales represents a paradox, considering that economic growth for 2015 is estimated higher than in 2014.

According to INSTAT, in 2015 the economic growth was 2.59% while the growth in 2014 was at the level of 1.83%.

For an economy with high growth, it is not natural that the private sector’s sales grow at a slower pace.

The contribution to sales growth has come mainly from the branch of service, which contributed with 1.9% to total sales growth, while producers of goods contributed with 1.7%.

The survey confirms the high growth rates of investment, which last year expanded by 14.9%.

This increase was even higher than the 12% growth of the previous year, which proves the high contribution of investment in the growth.

According to INSTAT, over 28% of investments were carried out in the energy sector, mainly in the construction of new plants.

An even higher growth was reported by employment. According to INSTAT, employment in the private sector last year expanded by 17.4%, while in 2014 the growth was at the level of 7.7%.

This is a further confirmation that employment indicators in the economy are improving.

However, the highest growth of employment compared to sales makes even more acute the problem of poor labor productivity.

This is a competitive weakness of the Albanian economy in relation to all other countries of the region, highlighted earlier this month in a study of the European Bank for Reconstruction and Development.

The number of active enterprises in the economy last year was nearly 105 thousand, marking an annual increase of around 23%.

Ersuin Shehu/SCAN

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