t urban
loans predominated by a large margin and constituted from 69 to 93
percent of the total. The number of savings accounts increased from
235,400 in 1960 to 445,000 in 1968, and the volume of deposits rose from
119 million to 247 million leks. Interest paid on these amounts totaled
3.6 million and 4.8 million leks in the respective years, which implies
a reduction of the interest rate from about 3.0 to 2.5 percent.

FOREIGN ECONOMIC RELATIONS

Foreign Aid

The country's foreign economic relations have been conditioned by its
leadership's economic goals and political persuasion. As a poor,
undeveloped country intent on modernizing and expanding its economy at a
rapid pace, Albania has had to rely heavily on foreign economic and
technical assistance during the post-World War II period. The
leadership's extreme Marxist orientation and hostility toward the
Western nations have precluded a recourse to non-Communist sources of
aid and have made the country entirely dependent upon contributions by
other Communist states. But even within the Communist sphere political
disagreements have had a disruptive effect on aid arrangements (see ch.
6, Government Structure and Political System).

From 1945 to 1948 economic and technical assistance was received from
Yugoslavia. After the political break between that country and Albania,
the Soviet Union assumed the role of major aid donor, and smaller
contributions were made by some of the East European Communist states.
Since 1961, when the substantial support of the Soviet Union was lost in
the wake of the political schism within the Communist world engendered
by the Sino-Soviet dispute, Albania has been able to obtain assistance
only from the People's Republic of China (Communist China). The
readjustment necessitated by the abrupt withdrawal of all Soviet aid and
technical advisers was said by Albanian leaders to have retarded
economic development by three years.

The extent of aid received in the form of long-term loans, some of which
became grants through debt cancellations, is only partially known. The
amount of total loan commitments by the Soviet Union in United States
dollar equivalents for the period of 1945 through 1961 was estimated by
one Western source at US$246 million. Another Western source reported
the amount of loans promised by the Soviet Union and the East European
Communist states for the 1961-65 period to have been in excess of
US$132.5 million. These lo