PRESS RELEASE
Questions and Answers at the press conference, 30.11.2011

Question-There is a change in your vocabulary when you assess the economic outlook. Today I heard you speaking about a moderate economic growth, whereas so far, you have used the phrase below-potential growth. Is it simply a change in your vocabulary or does it assume that the Bank of Albania has revised down its economic growth outlook? The second question has to do with the measures that the European Union and other institutions are taking to discipline financial markets. Do you think that these measures may affect to some extent Albania as well, hence, making banks constrain their lending?

Answer-The Bank of Albania's vision for 2012 and the outlook for 2011 are stated explicitly in my speech. Both phrases are part of the central bank jargon and are also expressed in the material. What we deem is that the next year requires added prudence and we should take into consideration the international situation, which is not simply unclear.

Second, the Bank of Albania assesses the whole range of internal and external information. Today, different markets and economies are struggling severely to preserve their risk evaluation limits. In this titanic effort, various countries take various approaches. There is a special approach that is somewhat surprising in the global context of the world's economic development, i.e., various countries are showing more prudence in terms of their boundaries. In a broad sense, this is inducting uncertainty in the market. What the Bank of Albania deems as very important is the availability of an ever more comprehensive information on markets and their prospects, and the stability of macroeconomic, macro-prudential and debt parameters at home.

Having this safeguard in place, not only through policy approach but also through regulatory adoption, as was the case with recent amendments to the banking law, we will establish appropriate barriers and will make necessary room for the market to develop.