PRESS RELEASE
The Governor of the Bank of Albania, Mr. Ardian Fullani, attends the IMF and World Bank Spring Meetings

The, Governor of the Bank of Albania, Mr. Ardian Fullani, at the head of a Bank of Albania delegation, attended the International Monetary Fund and World Bank Group Spring Meetings, held in Washington, USA, during 23 - 25April 2010.

These meetings are held annually and provide an open forum for participants to discuss the latest global economy developments and introduce the macroeconomic situation of the respective countries and share their views. The future and interplay of economic policies in the current situation and the post-crisis strategy were at the center of these discussions.

Governor Fullani had a lot meetings, where we distinguish those with Mr. Murilo Portugal, Deputy Managing Director of the International Monetary Fund; Mr. Arrigo Sadun, Executive Derector for Albania in IMF; Mr. Leslie Lipschtz, IMF Institute Director; Mr. Jose Vinals, Financial Counselor and Director of the Monetary and Capital Markets Department, IMF; Mr. Gerwin Bell, Head of IMF Mission in Albania; Mr. Marek Belka, Deputy Director of IMF European Department; and Mr. Philippe le Houreou, Vice President for Europe and Central Asia Region in August; Mr. Shahbaz Mavadatt, Director, Southern Europe and. Central Asia, International Finance Corporation; Mrs. Jane Armitage, Country Director and Regional Coordinator for South East Europe; Mr. Giovanni Manjoni, Executive Director for Albania, at World Bank, etc.

The Governor, during these meetings, introduced the current macro-economic situation and the measures Bank of Albania has implemented to minimize the world crisis effects, and provided information to their interest in terms of different issues of the Albanian economy. The IMF directors assessed the attention, the maturity and the professionalism that the Bank of Albania has shown regarding the management of the situation originating from the crisis effects.

During his stay in Washington, Governor Fullani, attended the regional policy dialogue organized by Center of Excellence in Finance and the International Monetary Fund entitled Strengthening Domestic Anchors to Assist with Crisis Exit Strategies. The dialogue was attended by several ministers of finance and central bank governors of Southeastern European countries, other high level country representatives and high level representatives of the IMF and several other representatives of the international financial institutions.

The discussions of this table were concentrated on the post-crisis fiscal policy, particularly emphasizing the compilation and implementation of a clear and functional fiscal rule, considering them as domestic anchors in terms of European membership process.

The high level regional dialogues was followed by the 10th CEF Supervisory Board meeting chaired by Mr. Ardian Fullani, the Governor of the Bank of Albania.

At this meeting the members of the Supervisory Board approved the CEF Annual Report 2009 and Financial statements and were informed of the CEF Work Plan for 2010/2011.

Governor Fullani held also meetings with executive directors of the Federal Reserve Bank of New-York and of the Financial Services Volunteers Corp, where it was discussed on the mutual collaboration and the technical assistance that Bank of Albania may benefit from these two institutions.