The magazine portal "monitor.al" published an article yesterday (January 22), the title of which claims that Kosovo and Albania rank last in the region in terms of income according to purchasing power.
While this claim in the title of "monitor.al", based on data from the latest report on the Article IV consultation for 2023, of the International Monetary Fund (IMF), is accurate, the content of the article also claims that Kosovo and Albania rank last in Europe in this aspect.
After verification by hibrid.info, it has been confirmed that the claim in the content of the "monitor.al" article is untrue.
Link to the article published by "monitor.al":
Excerpt from the article published on Monitor.al:
Albania and Kosovo, with the lowest per capita income in Europe, according to purchasing power
Other IMF data show that Albania and Kosovo continue to remain last in Europe in the per capita income indicator measured according to purchasing power parity, measured in international dollars.
In 2023, this indicator for Albania was 19.5 thousand international dollars (the indicator eliminates price differences between countries). Albania leaves behind Kosovo, which has this indicator of 15.8 thousand dollars.
The same claim, referring to the "monitor.al" article, was also published by several Albanian-language media outlets in Kosovo, which incorrectly reported in the headline that Kosovo and Albania have the lowest incomes in Europe, according to purchasing power (see here, here, here and here).
Hibrid.info has researched and verified the data of the per capita income indicator measured according to purchasing power parity, measured in international dollars, published by the IMF (see here).
The map of European countries in this report, for the years 2023 and 2024, shows that Ukraine is the only country on the continent, among the countries with purchasing power income indicators from 5 thousand to 15 thousand dollars. Which makes Ukraine the country with the lowest income in Europe, in this aspect.
Also, another article found after research by hibrid.info, published in the magazine "Global Finance", which also refers to the latest report for the consultation of Article IV for the year 2023, confirms Ukraine's ranking below Kosovo and Albania, in the indicator of per capita income measured according to purchasing power parity, measured in international dollars (see here).
Based on the fact that the data found shows Ukraine with a lower per capita income than Kosovo and Albania, hibrid.info assesses that the claim that these two countries rank last in Europe in terms of purchasing power is incorrect.
Analyze:
The magazine portal "monitor.al" has published an article, the title of which correctly indicates that Kosovo and Albania rank as the last countries in Europe with income, in terms of purchasing power.
In the content of this same article, it is claimed that these two countries also rank last in Europe, according to purchasing power.
After verification by hibrid.info, in the IMF reports for 2023 and 2024, it has been confirmed that Ukraine ranks last in Europe in this regard.
Based on the working methodology, hibrid.info rates this article as "Error".
Reasoning:
The "Error" rating is given to media reports in which the media editorial staff made a mistake by publishing incorrect information or broadcasting unverified news from another source, without the clear intention of misinforming the public.