TIRANA: Albania's economy grew 0.4 percent in 2013, less than forecast by the government and the International Monetary Fund, although the pace picked up in the final quarter, the Institute of Statistics said on Monday.
If the preliminary estimate is confirmed, it will be the lowest annual growth Albania has recorded in more than a decade. Official forecasters had expected growth of 0.7 percent.
"Upon the evaluation of the fourth quarter ... based on the Gross Value Added quarterly indicator, 2013 had growth of 0.44 percent compared to 2012," INSTAT head Gjergj Filipi said.
The economy expanded by 1.1 percent in the final quarter compared with the same period a year before, with all sectors except transport and services reported to have grown.
Output in all sectors except agriculture had fallen 2.3 percent in the third quarter during a lengthy change of government after parliamentary elections in June.
Albania enjoyed annual growth of around 6 percent between 2000 and 2008 but growth rates were halved in 2009-11 by the global economic downturn, which hit the country's neighbours and trade partners Greece and Italy particularly hard.
Filipi said Albania would adopt a global change of methodology in calculating its national accounts this year and INSTAT would therefore review quarterly and annual gross domestic product data during the year.
The changes will also include the latest data from the 2011 census, which showed the Balkan country's population had shrunk by 7.7 percent to 2.8 million people in the last decade.
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