Credit for trade, hospitality and construction increases/Less and less financing for agriculture

2026-06-12 15:06:40, Ekonomi CNA

Credit for trade, hospitality and construction increases/Less and less financing

Business lending has increased in the first half of this year, while the sectoral distribution continues to show an orientation mainly towards trade, services and construction.

Bank of Albania data show that for the first four months of 2026, the banking sector provided a total of 92.8 billion lek in new loans to businesses, an increase of 11.4% compared to the same period last year.

Trade remains dominant in the structure of credit to the economy and has recorded high growth even in the first months of this year. In four months, new credit to trade reached 36.2 billion lek, up 25.5% compared to the same period a year ago. Credit to trade now accounts for 39% of the value of new credit disbursed during the year, further increasing from last year's levels.

Although domestic demand has shown signs of weakness, tourism is partially offsetting this effect and is causing related services, especially trade, to have a growing role in the Albanian economy after the pandemic.

The second most credited sector of the economy was the manufacturing industry, with 13.1 billion lek, but down 4.4% compared to the previous year. After a positive performance last year, new credit to the manufacturing industry appears to be declining this year. Industry as a whole and the manufacturing sector in particular have shown a weak production performance in recent years and this is starting to be reflected in the lending figures.

The third most credit-intensive sector of the economy is construction, with a new loan value of 11.7 billion lek. The value of new construction loans increased by 11% compared to the same period a year ago, a pace similar to the average growth of new business loans. New construction loans account for about 12.5% ??of total loans to businesses, in line with last year’s performance.

Meanwhile, real estate activities have also seen significant growth in lending in the first months of 2026. New lending in this sector reached 3.7 billion lek, with an annual growth of 110%.

The sector that includes accommodation and food services also continues to show growth. New credit reached 7.6 billion lek, an annual increase of 78%. The weight in the structure of business credit increased to 8.2%, from 5.1% a year earlier. The growth of credit for this sector seems to reflect the still high demand for investments related to the tourism sector, mainly in hotels and accommodation capacities.

Also noteworthy this year is the return of growth in lending to the energy sector, which had suffered a sharp decline last year. For the first four months of this year, new lending to the energy sector reached 4.5 billion lek, up 114% compared to a year earlier.

The agricultural sector also recorded modest lending at the beginning of this year, with 393 million lek or 26% less compared to the previous year.

Credit for agriculture continues to shrink, despite the application of various financing facilitation schemes, including a preferential funding program designed by the Bank of Albania and a new sovereign loan guarantee scheme applied by the Albanian government./Monitor