FLASH
Shkruar nga Pamfleti
Albania is facing this year a phenomenon that, although not unusual, seems to be more pronounced and with more consequences: specifically, the country is suffering from the completely unnecessary accumulation of significant funds in the government's account in the central bank, for due to non-implementation of the budget expenditure plan by line ministries. The problem lies not only in the fact that the planned investments are not being carried out, depriving the economy of the circulation of a large amount of money, but also in the fact that the budget surplus seems to have an impact on the exchange rate, keeping lek out of the market and caused strengthening of the lek against the euro.
The Ministry of Finance announced on Monday the preliminary results of the revenues and expenses of the state budget for the first six months of this year. [Link] The Ministry reported an excess of the forecast in income and non-realization of the plan in expenses and in the budget deficit. According to the data, the plan was realized 105%, mainly due to the exceptional tax on electricity production companies, while the expenses were realized to the extent of 91%.
"The surplus level for the 5-month period of 2023 resulted in about 36.2 billion LEK from about 6.3 billion LEK planned surplus," the statement reads. In short, the government has not spent nearly 29 billion ALL, or, at the current exchange rate, nearly 290 million euros, from the plan at the beginning of the year. This failure to implement the plan is likely partly responsible for the strengthening of the lek to unreasonable and damaging levels.
The money that the government does not spend is kept in its own account at the Bank of Albania, thus removing it from the market and from normal economic circulation.
The extremely high budget surplus comes as a surprise also due to the fact that this year there were elections, which usually brings an incentive to spend the budget money on electoral asphalt and the like. / BIRN
Lini një Përgjigje