Albania's foreign debt went up by 923 million euros (1.04 billion U.S. dollars) in 2015, 13.9 percent up from the previous year, amid tepid growth of the economy, the Albanian Daily News reported Saturday.
Total external debt of the Southeastern European country stood at 7.6 billion euros (8.5 billion dollars), with 41 percent in government debt, 23 percent in direct investment, 18 percent debt in other sectors, 17 percent in banks and 1 percent by the monetary authority, according to statistics from Open Data.
The debt was mainly invested in such sectors as energy, water supply and sanitation, transport, infrastructure, agriculture, health and environmental protection, the report said.
It warned against the potential problems created by foreign debt growing faster than economic output.
"When the growth of external debt is much higher than the growth of GDP (gross domestic product), or investments in a country, then it can create problems for the economy. This problem escalates under the conditions when the interest rates for that debt increase significantly," said Open Data.
Over recent years, Albania's GDP has grown by about 2-3 percent, while external debt has increased by an average of 18 percent annually.
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