Albanian ouverture

Michael Arnold speaks candidly. If the project had still been stoppable, according to Praktiker's director of internationalisation, it would have been put on ice for the time being, like other expansionary developments, in the light of the credit crunch and the distortions in terms of currency and consumption, especially in parts of eastern and south-eastern Europe. However, things could actually have turned out much worse. For Albania, an emerging country on the Adriatic to the north of Greece that is still very much an agricultural society, is proving to be surprisingly robust during the financial crisis. In fact, the European Bank for Reconstruction and Development (EBRD) suggests that Albania will be one of the few countries in Europe to achieve GDP growth this year. Its forecast indicates an increase of 1.2 per cent.
There are also other criteria that speak for Praktiker's investment of approx. € 12 mio in Albania: a great backlog of demand for construction and renovation, an extremely high level of home ownership at 90 per cent, good growth forecasts and a moderate rate of inflation. A look at the figure put on gross domestic product per capita in this country with its population of around 3.6 mio does spoil the picture somewhat: it came to just $ 4 074 in 2008 according to IMF data, which puts it 95th in world rankings. By comparison, Germany was 19th at $ 44 660.
And yet the visitor is surprised by the great number of Audis and Mercedes on the streets of the capital, by the numerous smart-looking cafes and bars and various well stocked shopping centres, some of which offer relatively limited assortments of DIY products. This is why the GDP figures are not taken too seriously by anyone, including the German ambassador Bernd Borchardt, who was present at the opening of the DIY store, along with the country's leading political figures. Mr Borchardt and the business consultants from the DIHA (German trade and industry association in Albania) explain the discrepancy between the statistics and the purchasing power on visible display by second jobs and, above all, by remittances sent home by Albanians living abroad.
Albania went through a long period of isolation under the communist dictator Enver Hoxha and endured political crises in the 1990s. However, the country is now regarded as a politically stable parliamentarian republic; it made an application to join the EU in April of this year. Nevertheless, the country is obviously a long way away from western…