Albania received a loan of US$10 million (Aˆ7.5 million) from the World Bank to help improve the country's education, health and social services, the Finance Ministry said Wednesday

Albania received a loan of US$10 million (Aˆ7.5 million) from the World Bank to help improve the country's education, health and social services, the Finance Ministry said Wednesday. The loan was the last in a series of three since Albania launched in 2001 its three-year National Strategy for Social and Economic Development, focused on much-needed structural reforms. The third loan "will continue to support the NSSED by building on the progress made thus far and by further consolidating and strengthening the reform program," the World Bank said. Albania must pay back the loan in 20 years, with a 10-year grace period. Albania's 3.1 million people are among Europe's poorest, with an estimated 25 percent living below the poverty line, according to the U.N.'s Food and Agriculture Organization. Nearly half of Albanians live on US$2 (Aˆ1.48) or less a day. The World Bank has been one of the key funders of post-communist Albania with loans totaling approximately US$768 million (Aˆ572 million).