Source: Ministry of Finance
Analysis and Comments: Open Data Albania (ODA)
Given that Albania has experienced a 50-year time span of non-existence of private property and services, the efficient and efective management of the of the privatization process becomes of great importance. The graph evidences two important time periods: the first period from 1993 to 1999 , during which the privatization revenues were very low. Revenues came primarily from the privatization of small enterprises or other minor assets.
The second period from 2000 to 2010 featured the privatization of some very important services, which were provided by the state until then. The revenues generated by these privatizations played a crucial role for the deficit financing.
Year 2002 was the first with high privatization revenues, 8.9 billion leke, financing about 22% of the deficit. This was a difficult year for the budget due to total revenues being lower than current expenditures. In other words, not only capital investments were financed by debt, but also part of the current expenditures. This was also the year during which the first major privatization took place, the National Commercial Bank.
During 2001, privatizations grew by 43% and financed 30% of that year’s deficit, whereas the following two years had very low averages. 2004 was anotehr successful year for privatizations. Among others, the National Savings Bank was privatized, helping to cover part of the deficit and reducing public debt. 2005 and 2006 were slow years, whereas in 2007 the privatization of Albtelecom was finally completed.
Source: Ministry of Finance
Analysis and Comments: Open Data Albania (ODA)
During 2008 the privatization revenues fell by 58%, but still they were considerable, as this was the year in which ARMO was transferred to private hands.
2009 was the record year in terms of privatization revenues. Approximately 25 billion leke were used to finance the deficit, and undoubtedly the sale of 76% of the shares of the Operator of Transmission System was the headline of the year.
2010 was interesting because of talk of the privatization of ex-hotel Dajti by the Bank of Albania, in the amount of 30 million euro. Nevertheless, the final fiscal table for 2010 shows only 411 million leke, or about 1/10th of the privatization value.
2011 deserves attention as well. Based on the fiscal table of the Consolidated Budget, privatizations reached 300 million leke, a very modest figure compared to previous years. Meanwhile, a meeting of the Council of Minister’s Task Force on the 10th of February decided on the completion of the privatization process for 1280 state owned properties by the end of 2011. The list includes not only state owned companies, but also shares owned by the government on certain already pivatized companies. Examples of the latter are AMC, Albtelecom, and Operator of Transmission System. With a rough calcualtions, the total value of these companies far surpasses the 300 million projected for 2011.
All the information is presented in the table below:
Source: Ministry of Finance
Analysis and Comments: Open Data Albania (ODA)