TIRANA: Albania’s public debt reached a record level of 73.7 percent of its GDP in September, surpassing debt limits set by the Albanian government as well as by international partners, Albanian Daily News reported Monday.
The latest statistics released by the Albanian Ministry of Finance showed that by the end of the third quarter, the country’s public debt amounted to 1.61 trillion lek (about 12.9 billion U.S. dollars), the highest in history and the debt-to-GDP ratio reached a staggering 73.7 percent, the highest since 2000.
The Albanian government was asked earlier by the European Commission to curb its surging public debt.
According to a recent report by the EU body, the Albanian government must lower its debt-to-GDP ratio to 72 percent in 2016 and to 70.3 percent in 2017.
