The common currency has marked another decline in the domestic foreign exchange market today, exchanging at 93.07 lekë, according to the official exchange rate of the Bank of Albania.
This is the lowest historical level since the euro began functioning as a physical currency.
Since the beginning of 2026, the Euro/Lek exchange rate has fallen by 3.8%.
Compared to the historical high of 140.4 lek, reached in February 2011, the euro is exchanged for 47.5 lek less, a decrease of 34%.
According to foreign exchange agents, the market is under the effect of the tourist season, which reaches its peak during this period of the year.
But the seasonal decline in the Euro exchange rate is a continuation of a clear downward trend that had started in the first months of the year, as rarely before. Statistics from the Bank of Albania show that for the first quarter of the year the current account deficit fell to 228 million euros, down 28% compared to the same period a year earlier.
Meanwhile, foreign direct investments reached 404 million euros, marking a new historical record for this period of the year. They increased by 11.6% compared to the same period last year.
Beyond the information provided by official statistics, there remains a strong public perception that the exchange rate is also significantly affected by foreign exchange inflows originating from informal or criminal activities.
Several cases published by the Special Structure against Corruption and Organized Crime confirm the perception of investing large amounts of dirty money in the development and purchase of real estate.
The euro's decline began in 2016, and by 2024, its depreciation was explained more by informal flows from the growth of construction than by the improvement of the current account deficit, which on the contrary worsened. After 2024, the effect of informal flows was also added by tourist inflows, with foreign national arrivals exceeding 12 million per year.
On the other hand, the strengthening of the Lek is partly believed to be supported by the fiscal policy pursued by the Albanian government, with large fiscal surpluses for most of the year, a practice that reduces the supply of the local currency in the market.
For the first 6 months of 2026, the budget surplus reached a record value of 52.8 billion lek, an increase of 60% compared to the same period a year earlier.
The Bank of Albania is continuously intervening in the foreign exchange market to buy currency, but the Bank of Albania's interventions are only partially controlling the decline of the Euro, without being able to completely stop it. Market sources indicate that the Central Bank has intervened twice to buy Euros this week.
From the beginning of 2024 to the end of the third quarter of 2026, the Bank of Albania has withdrawn almost 2.2 billion euros from the market. For the first quarter of this year alone, purchases were worth 140 million euros, a record for this period of the year.
