Albania’s industrial confidence index decreased to an over two-year low of -2.0 in the first quarter of 2019 from -1.3 in the previous period. Expectations deteriorated for production (33.6 from 41.1 in Q4) and employment (9.4 from 13.1). In addition, new orders (-20.1 from -11.3) and new export orders (-9.2 from -8.5) fell further. On the other hand, production over the past three months (9.1 from 1.7) was assessed more positively and the expected selling price increased (5.6 from 4.4). Business Confidence in Albania averaged -7.27 Index Points from 2002 until 2019, reaching an all time high of 4.80 Index Points in the third quarter of 2006 and a record low of -26.40 Index Points in the first quarter of 2009.
Business Confidence in Albania is expected to be -2.80 Index Points by the end of this quarter, according to Trading Economics global macro models and analysts expectations. Looking forward, we estimate Business Confidence in Albania to stand at -3.30 in 12 months time. In the long-term, the Albania Business Confidence is projected to trend around -5.00 Index Points in 2020, according to our econometric models.