Albanian daily Shqip reports that remittances coming in from Albanians living abroad have noticeably declined over the past five years.
Based on Albanian Central Bank, the newspaper reports that in the first quarter of 2013. remittances reached to 115 millions, compared to 159 millions in the preceding quarter, or 120,9 EUR in the first quarter of 2013. Shqip cites that a record for remittances in Albanian was 2007, when the country received almost a billion EUR.
The Albanian Central Bank believes the decrease in the amount of money Albanians working abroad sent to their family members in the country is due to global economic crisis, which was harsh toward countries were a huge number of Albanians work.
Albanian Government has made it clear it doesn't consider this flow of money to be as important. Prime Minister Edi Rama would especially like to focus on agriculture and the food processing industry and mining, as areas with the greater growth potential in Albania.- Oculus News