Albania is becoming increasingly dependent on imported electricity. The latest data of the Institute of Statistics show that during the first 6 months of this year, electricity imports amounted to 1,786 gigawatt hours, making up 44.4 percent of the available energy from the occupied 20.2 percent for the same period a year ago.
Import growth has offset production decline significantly in this period, due to lack of rainfall. INSTAT finds that during the first half of this year, the amount of energy produced by hydropower is down 46.9 percent compared with the same period a year ago. Along with production, declining exports also suffered electricity, leaving as the only possibilities for supplying the country with import light.
The country’s reliance on imported energy viewed with concern by the international financial institutions IMF and World Bank. This possess a huge risk to the state budget. For this reason, the International Monetary Fund has asked that the money Albania have accumulated this year in budget-execution of public investment is not to be redistributed, but collected in a special fund as security for next year’s budget against potential risks where the main risk is coming from situation in the energy sector.
