on policies - including
a strict monetary policy, public sector layoffs, and reduced social
services - have improved the government's fiscal situation and
reduced inflation. The recovery has been spurred by the remittances
of some 20% of the labor force which works abroad, mostly in Greece
and Italy. These remittances supplement GDP and help offset the
large foreign trade deficit. Foreign assistance and humanitarian aid
also supported the recovery. Most agricultural land was privatized
in 1992, substantially improving peasant incomes. Albania's
industrial sector ended its five-year, 78% decline in 1995,
recording roughly 6% growth. A sharp fall in chromium prices has
reduced hard currency receipts from the mining sector. Large
segments of the population, especially those living in urban areas,
continue to depend on humanitarian aid to meet basic food
requirements. Unemployment remains a severe problem accounting for
approximately one-fifth of the work force. Now that sanctions on
Serbia have been suspended, the falloff in hard currency earnings
from smuggling will aggravate unemployment problems. Growth is
expected to continue in 1996, but could falter if workers'
remittances from Greece are reduced or foreign assistance declines.

GDP: purchasing power parity - $4.1 billion (1995 est.)

GDP real growth rate: 6% (1995 est.)

GDP per capita: $1,210 (1995 est.)

GDP composition by sector:
agriculture: 55%
industry: NA%
services: NA% (1995 est.)

Inflation rate (consumer prices): 16% (1994 est.)

Labor force: 1.692 million (1994 est.) (including 352,000 emigrant
workers and 261,000 domestically unemployed)
by occupation (of those domestically employed): agriculture (nearly
all private) 49.5%, private sector 22.2%, state (nonfarm) sector
28.3% (including state-owned industry 7.8%)

Unemployment rate: 19% (1994 est.)

Budget:
revenues: $486.3 million
expenditures: $550.4 million, including capital expenditures of $124
million (1994)

Industries: food processing, textiles and clothing; lumber, oil,
cement, chemicals, mining, basic metals, hydropower

Industrial production growth rate: 6% (1995 est.)

Electricity:
capacity: 1,662,000 kW
production: 3.9 billion kWh
consumption per capita: 1,219 kWh (1994 est.)

Agriculture: wide range of temperate-zone crops and livestock

Illicit drugs: transshipment point for Southwest Asian heroin
tran