TIRANA – Albania’s gross domestic product (GDP) fell by an annual 2.52% in the first quarter of 2020 as a result of the COVID-19 pandemic, the country’s office of statistics said on Tuesday.
On a quarterly comparison basis, Albania’s GDP decreased by 0.30% in the January-March period, the statistical office, INSTAT, said in a quarterly report quoted by SeeNews on Tuesday.
The sectors that positively contributed to the country’s economic growth in the first quarter of 2020 were agriculture, forestry and fishing, real estate, as well as arts, entertainment and recreation services.
In 2019, Albania’s GDP grew by an estimated 2.2% year-on-year after a 4.06% increase in 2018, according to preliminary estimates released by INSTAT earlier this year.
In March, Albania’s government cut its 2020 GDP growth forecast to 2.0% from 4.1% originally projected in the budget law due to the adverse impact of the coronavirus disease on the economy.
Albania confirmed its first coronavirus case on March 9 this year. The total number of infected people rose by 69 to 2,535 on Tuesday, with the death toll reaching 63. Among Tuesday’s fatalities is the doctor and professor of the Medicine University Arjan Pushi, 58-years-old. The doctor was a well known professor at the Medicine University, with a distinguished career in the field of hematology. He was in intensive therapy for some days and then he was intubated, said the health ministry. /argumentum.al