Albania - Economic sectors



Albania's economy remains predominantly agricultural, and in 1999, the contribution of agriculture to GDP was 53 percent, up from 32.3 percent in 1989. Industry's share slipped from nearly 45 percent in 1989 to 26 percent in 1999, because of the collapse of loss-making state-run factories and the return of many workers to farming. The percentage of the population engaged in agriculture reached one-half by 1997. In 1998, 27 percent of the farms were engaged in subsistence farming —which means they did not sell their goods to the market—and only half used machinery. Prior to 1991, services were underdeveloped, with virturally no tourism and rudimentary banking and retail sectors. New service industries such as tourism and banking started to develop in the 1990s, mostly with foreign investment, but suffered in the 1997 financial collapse. The shrinking Albanian industry is based on local natural resources, notably oil, lignite, copper, chromium, limestone, bauxite, and natural gas.

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