“Unlike prior years, the increase in costs this year is not due to the end-of-year vacations,” declared Albana Muçaj, this episode’s guest on “A2 Business” with Aurora Sulçe.
“Apart from trader abuses during this period, we’re dealing with a constant increase in pricing, impacted by insufficient production and growing import prices,” the journalist and entrepreneur added.
“This is not just about Albania. Because the world was preoccupied with the health crisis, no one thought about economic trends, and prices immediately skyrocketed. As a result, we were also impacted,” Muçaj noted.
Albania, she claims, is currently suffering the price for poorly thought-out policies.
“Imports continue to outnumber exports by a factor of two. We are the ones who take the burden of ill-advised policy. We would be far less affected by this price hike if we were more focused on production,” Muçaj said.
Price increases, according to Arlinda Muja, president of the Microfinance Association, can only be avoided through a long-term investment policy that benefits local farmers.
“I believe that a long-term investment policy is required to assist farmers in transitioning from small to large businesses. “Their training is missing because I do not feel that imported products are of greater quality than native products,” Muja explained.
“Prices have been rising since the start of the year, not now. According to our research, 78 percent of people are unable to meet their financial obligations or save money. Only 22% of people do not require loans,” Muja added.
“We are not witnessing greater demand for loans for luxury issues,” she said, adding that the expansion of bad loans is not foreseen. ” As a result, we do not anticipate an increase in bad debt. The rate of return on loans obtained in the recent six months is higher than in 2019.”
According to economics expert Ermal Telha, basic products have seen the greatest price hike.
“We need more people to consume, and prices will naturally rise as a result.” Imports, I believe, are to blame for the price increase. At the present, we are obligated to import; we cannot control part of the price, but importers can,” Telha explained.
“The trade chain is the principal source of abuse in the product transmission chain. We have an unprotected national productive layer in relation to domestic production subsidies for a variety of reasons. We must focus on meeting our product’s quality criteria,” the expert concluded.
“We should have a more protective approach to locals, with favorable policies,” Telha adds.