Albania's communists claimed they had engineered the world's thriftiest society. One in three Albanians maintained a savings account. The volume of deposits in Albania's savings bank rose 200 times between 1950 and the late 1980s, albeit from a minuscule base. Between 1980 and 1983, the savings rate grew 28 percent. The continual increases in personal savings indicated that the economy was not producing adequate quantities of consumer goods. The government-run banks offered a 2 percent interest rate on short-term deposits and 3 percent on long-term deposits. After the economic crash of the early 1990s, saving, at least in cash, was not an option for most of the population. The wage of an average Albanian worker dropped to about US$10 per month; a day's pay bought a half kilogram of cheese.

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Source: U.S. Library of Congress