TIRANA, Oct. 31 (Xinhua) -- The gap between the rich and the poor in Albania is growing wider, the Albanian Institute of Statistics (INSTAT) said Tuesday in its household budget survey for 2016.
An Albanian household with an average size of 3.7 members spends an average of 73,143 leks (638 U.S. dollars) per month while the average consumption expenditures per capita is estimated to be 19,591 leks per month, of which 8,861 leks is for food and 10,730 leks is for non-food items.
According to the survey's findings, over 90 percent of households in Albania spend 78.3 percent of their total monthly earnings. Meanwhile, 10 percent of households spend only 21.7 percent of their monthly household earnings.
Household average consumer expenditures per capita showed the same trend of higher expenses for both strata.
Per capita consumption expenditure showed that the population of the households with the lowest expenditures (the 90 percent) spent an average of 18,119 leks monthly per capita in 2016, while the richer 10 percent of households spent an average of 62,562 leks monthly per capita, or 3.5 times more. (1 U.S. dollar = 114.7 Albanian leks)
