en
discontinued, but it was resumed on a very small scale by 1955. In 1964
this trade amounted to only 65 million leks (equivalent to US$13 million
at the official rate of exchange), or 8 percent of the total trade
turnover. Fully two-thirds of this trade was accounted for by Italy and
France. During the following four years trade with the West and
Yugoslavia increased 2-1/2 times to 160 million leks in 1968, and the
share of this trade in the total turnover doubled.

Italy continued to be the major Western trade partner, with a turnover
of 66 million leks in 1968, but the largest advance was made in the
trade with Yugoslavia. The total trade turnover with that country rose
fiftyfold in one year, from 400,000 leks in 1965 to more than 20 million
leks in 1966. Under the 1970 trade agreement the trade volume is
scheduled to reach 50 million leks. In 1968 Italy and Yugoslavia
together absorbed four-fifths of the combined exports to the West and
Yugoslavia and supplied more than half the imports from that area.

Another striking example of the country's trade expansion effort is the
agreement with Greece, a country with which Albania has had no political
or economic relations for thirty years. Signed by the chambers of
commerce of both countries in January 1970 and effective for one year,
this agreement provided for an initial turnover of 7.5 million leks, of
which 4 million leks were in imports and 3.5 million leks in exports.
Commercial orders worth about 1.5 million leks on both sides were
reported to have been placed by mid-1970.

In 1969 trade relations were officially reported to have been maintained
with forty different countries. Relations with thirteen of these
countries, both Communist and non-Communist, were formalized by trade
agreements.

Imports have overwhelmingly served the needs of production and
industrial expansion. Almost 50 percent of the imports in 1964 consisted
of machinery, equipment, and spare parts. More than 23 percent was
accounted for by minerals and metals, chemical and rubber products, and
construction materials. Another 16 percent was made up of agricultural
raw materials, about two-thirds of which was destined for the
food-processing industry. Only 11 percent of the imports consisted of
finished consumer goods and ready-to-eat foods. Continuing Party and
government emphasis on increasing production and the improved domestic
output of foods suggests that the production-oriented nature of