Albania

Albania declared its independence from the Ottoman Empire in 1912, but was conquered by Italy in 1939. Communist partisans took over the country in 1944. Albania allied itself first with the USSR (until 1960), and then with China (to 1978). In the early 1990s, Albania ended 46 years of xenophobic Communist rule and established a multiparty democracy. The transition has proven challenging as successive governments have tried to deal with high unemployment, widespread corruption, a dilapidated physical infrastructure, powerful organized crime networks, and combative political opponents. Albania has made progress in its democratic development since first holding multiparty elections in 1991, but deficiencies remain. International observers judged elections to be largely free and fair since the restoration of political stability following the collapse of pyramid schemes in 1997; however, there have been claims of electoral fraud in every one of Albania's post-communist elections. In the 2005 general elections, the Democratic Party and its allies won a decisive victory on pledges to reduce crime and corruption, promote economic growth, and decrease the size of government. The election, and particularly the orderly transition of power, was considered an important step forward. Albania joined NATO in April 2009 and is a potential candidate for EU accession. Although Albania's economy continues to grow, the country is still one of the poorest in Europe, hampered by a large informal economy and an inadequate energy and transportation infrastructure.

Economical characteristics

 * Currency: Lek (ISO code: ALL)
 * Central bank discount rate: 6.25% (31 December 2008)
 * Commercial banks lending rate: 13.02% (31 December 2008)
 * Stock of money (M1): $3.028 billion (31 December 2008)
 * Quasi money (with M1 makes M2): $6.251 billion (31 December 2008)

Notable events:

 * Banking crisis: 1992

Statistics
Additional data form Albanian public sources (the Institute of Statistics, Bank of Albania , and the Ministry of Finances ):

Links

 * Albania on Wikipedia
 * Central bank of Albania
 * Country profile (pdf) from the Enterprise Studies page (part of the The World Bank Group)
 * Studies from the Library of Congress (1986-1998)
 * BBC country profile