The Bank of Albania reported about its annual balance of 2017 a total loss of about ALL 15 billion, or about € 115 million, meanwhile last year the los was € 4 million.
This excessive loss has come entirely from exchange rate changes, as the Bank of Albania saw a depreciation of its reserves in these two currencies as a consequence of the sharp depreciation of the euro and the dollar against the domestic currency.
According to the balance sheet notes, "the revaluation reserve derives from the net gain / (loss) on the change in the fair value of monetary gold and foreign exchange gains / (losses) that are initially recognized in profit or loss and then transferred to the reserve of the revaluation. The decrease of the revaluation reserve by ALL about 15,247 million is the result of the depreciation of foreign currencies, and mainly of USD and Euro against ALL. "
During 2017, the euro was traded on average with 134.1 lekë, from 137.4 lekë the previous year, with a 2.4% depreciation. Even the dollar fell from 124 ALL to 119 ALL, depreciating by 4.1%.
By the end of 2017, the Bank of Albania had nearly 3 billion euros as foreign reserves, which are sufficient to finance more than 7 months of imports. Compared to the previous year, the growth of foreign exchange reserves was 1.69%, down from 2.25% a year earlier.
The Bank maintains its reserve in foreign currency (mainly euro and dollars), gold and a share in SDR (International Monetary Fund currency).
As a monetary gold, at the end of 2017, the Bank of Albania had about ALL 7.3 billion or € 55 million or about 2% of reserves, while most of the reserves are held in euros and dollars.
In total, for the year 2017, the Bank of Albania reported interest income from ALL 2.7 billion to ALL 2.5 billion in the previous year. Even net income was on the rise, but anyway the sharp decline in currencies, which devalued foreign exchange reserves, caused the bank a huge loss, reports Monitor.