IMF team arrives Albania to evaluate loan

An International Monetary Fund (IMF) mission teamarrived in Tirana on Saturday to get acquainted with the situation on the Albanianeconomy, as a determining factor for the disbursement of the second tranche of the loan funds, according to ATA.The IMF has decided in March to lend Albania 330 million euros(about 457 million U.S. dollars) in total for three years to support economic reforms in the country.Under the deal, Tirana got an immediate disbursement of 26.4 million euros toassist its planned reforms in the pension system, energy, local government finance,public administration and business environment.The IMF mission team held several official meetings with senior management ofpublic finances, Albanian Minister of Finance, Shkelqim Cani, Governor of the Albanian Bank, Ardian Fullani and Democratic Party leader, Lulzim Basha.The IMF mission will submit a report on the economic situation and fulfillment ofconditions as conclusion of the visit to Albania. This report will be sent to Washington Executive Board of IMF which will decide on the disbursement of thesecond loan tranche of 26 million euros, which will be available in early June, 2014.The main issues expected to be scanned by IMF team are the implementation of therecommendations, public finances situation during the first three months of thisyear, as well as debt repayment performance.Regarding the income performance of Albania for the first three months of the year, Taxes and Customs have exceeded the expectations by 1.2 billion Lek(11.8 millionU.S. dollars), while incomes increased by 6.2 percent compared to January-March2013.