In lek or euro, today a citizen can get from the bank the entire amount needed to buy a house. But this will no longer happen. The Bank of Albania has set a maximum ceiling for the amount that banks can lend to citizens to buy an apartment.
"The maximum loan in lek will be 85% for the first home and 80% for the second home. In foreign currency, the loan value will be 75% for the first home and 70% for the second home. It is lower to avoid exchange rate risk," said Governor Sejko.
There are also changes in terms of the monthly loan installments that citizens will pay to the bank for the loan received.
"The installment to income ratio will be at the level of 40% for the Albanian lek currency and 35% for the foreign currency currency. While for the second home the ratio will be the loan installment no more than 35% of total income and for the foreign currency loan as much as 30% of total income," added Sejko.
Trump's trade war, tariffs and the Russia-Ukraine conflict are risking another wave of inflation accompanied by reduced investment in global economies, including Albania. This is warned by the Central Bank, which says that this situation is increasing uncertainty in the markets.
“Continued geopolitical tensions and uncertainty regarding trade and economic policies could have significant implications for the global economy in general and the European economy in particular. In particular, the scale and intensity of the materialization of tariffs and trade barriers could generate shocks of a complex supply and demand nature, which could have a potentially negative impact on both economic growth and inflation,” the governor said.
Despite inflation having long since returned below target, the base interest rate will remain unchanged at 2.75 percent for at least another month.
“The Supervisory Board judges that the current monetary policy stance remains appropriate for achieving our price stability objective going forward. The Supervisory Board also notes that the overall balance of medium-term pressures is gradually moving towards our inflation objective. In this context, future monetary policy decisions will continue to be conditioned by new information, and in particular by analyses and assessments of the development of domestic inflationary pressures.”
As he focused on the economic growth profile, Governor Gent Sejko during the first quarter of 2025, he said that it remained similar to that of last year. (A2 Televizion)
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