US:
chief of mission: Ambassador Marisa R. LINO
embassy: Rruga Elbasanit 103, Tirana
mailing address: American Embassy, Tirana, Department of State,
Washington, DC 20521-9510

Flag description: red with a black two-headed eagle in the center

Economy

Economy--overview: An extremely poor country by European
standards, Albania is making the difficult transition to a more
open-market economy. The economy rebounded in 1993-95 after a severe
depression accompanying the collapse of the previous centrally
planned system in 1990 and 1991. However, a weakening of government
resolve to maintain stabilization policies in the election year of
1996 contributed to renewal of inflationary pressures, spurred by
the budget deficit which exceeded 12%. The collapse of financial
pyramid schemes in early 1997--which had attracted deposits from a
substantial portion of Albania's population--triggered severe social
unrest which led to more than 1,500 deaths, widespread destruction
of property, and an 8% drop in GDP. The new government installed in
July 1997 has taken strong measures to restore public order and to
revive economic activity and trade. The economy continues to be
bolstered by remittances of some 20% of the labor force which works
abroad, mostly in Greece and Italy. These remittances supplement GDP
and help offset the large foreign trade deficit. Most agricultural
land was privatized in 1992, substantially improving peasant
incomes. In 1998, Albania probably recovered most if not all of the
7% drop in GDP of 1997.

GDP: purchasing power parity--$5 billion (1998 est.)

GDP--real growth rate: 7% (1998 est.)

GDP--per capita: purchasing power parity?$1,490 (1998 est.)

GDP--composition by sector:
agriculture: 56%
industry: 21%
services: 23% (1997)

Population below poverty line: 19.6% (1996 est.)

Household income or consumption by percentage share:
lowest 10%: NA%
highest 10%: NA%

Inflation rate (consumer prices): 40% (1997 est.)

Labor force: 1.692 million (1994 est.) (including 352,000
emigrant workers and 261,000 domestically unemployed)

Labor force--by occupation: agriculture (nearly all private; but
some state employed) 49.5%, private business sector 22.2%, state
business sector 28.3% (including state-owned industry 7.8%);
note--includes only those domestically employed

Unemployment rate: 14% (October 1997) officially, but likely to