Albania

Albania is a developing, upper-middle-income economy that has transformed since the fall of one of Europe's most isolated communist regimes in 1991. Agriculture still employs a large share of the workforce, but services — especially tourism along the Adriatic and Ionian coasts — and remittances from Albanians abroad now drive growth.

Growth has been steady in recent years, helped by energy projects, a tourism boom, and Albania's candidacy for European Union membership, though corruption, a large informal economy, and emigration remain persistent challenges.

Key Sectors

Leading sectors include tourism, agriculture (vegetables, fruit, olives, and tobacco), hydropower — which supplies nearly all of Albania's electricity — mining of chromium and copper, and textiles and footwear produced for European markets.