An Albanian business organization has sent on 11 May an open letter to national leaders, including Prime Minister Edi Rama and the Central Bank governor, Gent Sejko, urging them to stop the strengthening of the national currency, the lek, against the euro.
“This phenomenon has directly affected producers and exporters by cutting their profit margins and by sending them into the red,” the letter by the Albanian Union of Producers says.
Albania’s currency kept a stable exchange rate against the euro for several years up to 2015, when the lek started to strengthen from 140 lek to one euro the then typical exchange rate – to 135 in 2016 and 133 at the end of 2017.
The pace of strengthening has accelerated in the last few months. Last week, the lek broke a ten-year record by changing hands for less than 127 lek per euro.
