Albania’s GDP put in strong growth of 17.9% in Q2 compared to the same period of 2020, as it recovered from the coronacrisis and the initial spring 2020 lockdown. GDP was also up by 2.1% in quarter-on-quarter terms, according to statistics office Instat. 

Broken down by sectors of the economy, the strongest contribution to the annual GDP growth was industry, electricity and water, which added 4.1 percentage points (pp), a further 4.1 pp came from trade, transport, accommodation and food services and 3.4 pp from construction. Other sectors made smaller contributions to the overall increase, except for agriculture, forestry and fishing, which dragged the total down by 0.19 pp. 

Compared to 2Q20, the construction sector expanded by 41.7%; industry, electricity and water by 39.9%; and trade, transport, accommodation and food services by 31.8%.

In month-on-month terms, the strongest growth was recorded in the construction sector, which expanded by 9.1%, followed by industry, electricity and water with 6.8%. Again, agriculture, forestry and fishing was the only sector to contract, by 0.2%. 

By the expenditure approach, the sharpest increase was in international trade: exports of goods and services increased by 130.6%, while imports of goods and services grew by 53.6%, Instat said. 

Gross fixed capital formation rose by 35.7%, general government consumption by 11.0% and household final consumption (which accounts for an important part of the total economy) by 9.8%.

Bank of Albania governor Gent Sejko said on September 28 that the economy showed “clear recovery trends” in the first half of 2021, and the central bank's forecasts indicate a positive performance of the economy in the medium term, a central bank statement said.