Construction does not increase well-being/ Albania, once again the last in Europe for income per capita

2024-05-31 14:49:00, Ekonomi CNA

Construction does not increase well-being/ Albania, once again the last in

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The economic growth mainly driven by the high flow of constructions and sales of real estate, or the high number of tourists does not seem to have improved the well-being of Albanians.

The latest Eurostat data revealed that in 2022, Albania ranked last in Europe in terms of Domestic Product per Capita, with 34% of the European average. The country has also been overtaken by Bosnia and Herzegovina, which according to previous data was at the same level as Albania.

Bosnia's income was as much as 35% of the European average, North Macedonia's as much as 42% of the EU. Serbia had this indicator of 44%, while Montenegro has the highest level in the region, with 50%. Data for Kosovo are not available.

Even in another indicator, that of individual consumption per capita (AIC), which measures the purchasing power of goods and services, Albania ranks last, with 41% of the European average, at the same levels as Bosnia and Herzegovina. The highest level is in Montenegro with 63%, followed by Serbia with 53% and North Macedonia with 50%.

According to Eurostat's explanation, although GDP per capita is an important and widely used indicator of the level of economic well-being of countries, consumption per capita may be more useful for comparing the relative well-being of consumers in different countries.

During 2022, the Albanian economy grew by 4.85%, but about half of this growth came from construction and real estate, which expanded by 10.7% and 11.2%, respectively. It seems that this growth that is coming from construction is not managing to improve the well-being of Albanians, who continue to remain the poorest in Europe.

europe

According to Eurostat, the gross domestic product (GDP) of the European Union in 2021 represented 15.2% of world GDP when expressed in purchasing power standards (PPS).

The largest economy in the world in 2021 was China with about 18.9% of world GDP. The United States was the second largest, at 15.5% of GDP. The EU was in third place, with 15.2%.

Among the 20 countries in the world with a share greater than 1% of world GDP expressed in PPS, there were 5 EU countries: Germany (3.4%), France (2.4%), Italy (1.9% ), Spain (1.4%) and Poland (1.0%). All together contributed about 10.1% to world GDP.

Looking at GDP per capita for the world's 20 largest economies in 2021, only 6 countries were above the EU average: the United States, Germany, Australia, Canada, France and the United Kingdom. While the Chinese economy was the largest in terms of GDP in the PPS, GDP per capita was only 39% of the EU average.

There was a 9-fold difference between the highest and lowest GDP per capita among the world's 20 largest economies (the United States at 137% of the EU average compared to India at 15% of the EU average -'s)./ Monitor