Albanian Business Vocabulary: 20 Easy Terms

Looking for the most professional words to fill the void? Learning the basic Albanian business vocabulary is a must for anyone considering working in Albania or setting up their own business over there. The good thing about Albanian Business Vocabulary, at least if you speak English, is that you’ll recognize many words. For example, Product is ‘Produkt,’ Deficit is ‘Deficiti,’ and Industry is ‘Industrisë.’ Ready to learn more? Keep reading below!

Albanian Business Vocabulary

EnglishAlbanian
TrademarkMarkë tregtare
Market ResearchKerkim tregu
BrandMarkë
ProductProdukt
ConsumerKonsumatori
WholesalerShitës me shumicë
DeficitDeficiti
LucrativeFitimprurëse
CommodityMall
InflationInflacioni
MergerBashkimi
AdvertisementReklamim
IndustryIndustrisë
BudgetBuxheti
CustomerKlienti
PromotionPromovimi
SalaryPaga
EmployeePunonjës
PaymentPagesa
Business tripUdhëtim biznesi

Albanian Traditional Markets (Bazaars)

The biggest market in Albania is The New Bazaar, located in the capital city Tirana. It is part of the famous old town along with the Kokonozi Mosque.

Bazaars are often tourist attractions; however, this one is also a working market and sells fruit, vegetables, fish, meat, Albanian wine, and Raki.

Where Did The Concept Of Bazaars Come From?

Bazaars have long been famous in areas as diverse as Iran and India. Historically, they were the central marketplaces of a town or city. The term comes from Persian and means public market district.

The further East you move across Europe towards The Middle East and Asia, the more the bazaar plays a central role in daily life and is widely described as ‘the beating heart’ of the community.

Albanian Taxation

Taxes in Albania include income tax, social security, corporate tax, and VAT. Income tax is separated into three brackets. If you earn between 0 Lek and 30,000Lek, you pay 0% income tax. If you earn between 30,000Lek and 150,000Lek, you pay 13%. Finally, if you earn more than 150,000Lek you pay 23%.

For reference, 100Lek is worth $1.

Corporate tax in Albania is set at a flat rate of 15%. If a business has a turnover of less than 8million Lek, they don’t have to pay corporate tax.

Albanian Business Vocabulary

Startups In Albania

Historically, Albania has had big problems keeping its most talented young entrepreneurs. A lot of them would leave for nearby Italy, Greece or Turkey. For that reason, the startup scene has been somewhat lacking. 

However, there are now 150 startups established in Albania in some part down to the Innovation challenge fund, an EU initiative. The challenge fund was specifically set up to get Albanian businesses through the challenging, early stages of development or what is colloquially known as ‘the valley of death.’

Some industry experts are excited about Albania’s potential. The education system in Albania is good. Every year 3000 students graduate from the ICT field. This stems from the high degree of technical proficiency of many former Soviet economies(Albania was communist until the early 90s.)

As with most startups, the biggest problem is access to funds. Unfortunately, there are no venture capital funds or angel investors in Albania.

Albanian Currency

The currency in Albania is known as the Lek and was first introduced in 1926.

Before then, Albania was on the gold standard. During Ottoman rule, the currency was the piastre.

The Lek is named after Alexander the Great, who’s known as Leka in Albania. His portrait features on the 1 Lek coin.

Of course, Alexander the Great is widely accepted as the greatest military commander of all time and forged an entire empire.

Recent controversial research has claimed that Alexander was not from Macedonia but actually from Albania.

Albanian Stock Exchange

The Albanian stock exchange is known as the Tirana stock exchange or TSE and is run by Anila Fueraj.

The Stock exchange was only established in 1996, not long after Enver Hoxha’s regime ended. As discussed in previous articles, Albania was a communist country for 50 years, from the 1940s to the 1990s. That meant no such thing as the free market.

The TSE is a department of the Albanian central bank. It had full membership of the Federation of Euro-Asian Stock exchanges. However, that organization was disbanded in 2014.

Albanian Coffee Culture

There are many Albanian startups in the form of coffee shops and microbreweries. Tirana has the most coffee shops per capita in the whole world. Coffee is a vital part of the economy. 18% of all businesses are coffee shops or restaurants! They are popular both with Albanians and Tourists alike. The average Albanian consumes 2.5kg of coffee per year. That equates to 32Euros per month per person. It doesn’t sound like much until you consider that one cup of coffee is only around 40 cents!

Albanians drink a few different styles of coffee. That Italian espresso is popular, but so is the Turkish variety. Tirana is particularly good for ‘hipster’ coffee shops. You can spend an entire day getting lost in all the different coffee shops.

Learn Albanian With Ling

Albanian Business Vocabulary

Ling is undoubtedly the best app for Android or Mac OS to learn an Albanian language course. Our courses are great for beginners or advanced learners.

We have reading, listening, writing, essential vocabulary, and grammar practice that provides practical examples. Importantly, all of our courses are designed by native speakers of that language. Remember, we have over 60 languages to choose from.

This Albanian blog is a great accompaniment to help your learning process. We update it weekly and have everything from information about the Albanian economy to Albanian vocabulary for family and friends.

Share this post

Leave a Reply

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *


The reCAPTCHA verification period has expired. Please reload the page.

What makes learning with Ling special

Interactive exercises

Improve your pronunciation by starting a conversation with our app’s interactive chatbot

Engaging activities

Practice your skills with mini-games and track your progress with fun quizzes

Mix of languages

Choose from over 60 languages, both big and small, and listen to audio from native speakers

Proven results

Backed by linguistic research, our learning methods can help you achieve fluency in record time