TIRANA, April 11 (Xinhua) -- Albania's economic growth in 2017 by 3.8 percent further helped in opening job positions and reducing poverty, World Bank (WB) reported on Wednesday.

WB's Representative to Albania Maryam Salim, while presenting the conclusions for Albania on the 13th Economic Regional Report, emphasized that economic growth in 2017 improved from 3.4 percent in 2016 to 3.8 percent due to investments, high consumption and favorable environment.

According to the WB report, in 2018 Albania's economic growth is expected to slow down and fall into 3.6 percent because two major energy projects financed through Foreign Direct Investment (FDI) are expected to get finalized.

In 2017, according to the report, Albania's public debt reduced by 1.4 percent of the GDP and reached the level of 71 percent of the GDP.

Regarding the public-private partnership projects in Albania, Salim highlighted the need of greater transparency on their management and suggested that Albanian finance ministry play an important role in this respect.