The Bank of Albania intends to reduce the use of the euro in the Albanian economy. In this context, Governor Gent Sejko has informed his Austrian counterpart that some measures have been taken to encourage the use of the lek.

According to Sejko, the process of “de-euroization” is giving encouraging results, being reflected in the increase in the demand for loans in lek.

The high use of the euro in the country, through transactions, loans, deposits and debt payments, as well as informal sources, has devalued the European currency to historical levels, with the current exchange rate being 98.8 lek per euro.

The new measures have been introduced 6 years after the start of the de-euroization initiative, a period during which the Albanian economy has been hit by the pandemic and price crises in energy and markets, but these problems have now been overcome.

In the meeting with the Austrian governor, Robert Holzmann, Sejko also emphasized that the ratio of problem loans is at historical lows.