PRESS CONFERENCE
Speech by Ardian Fullani, Governor of the Bank of Albania, at the Press Conference with the IMF Mission

In the meetings held with the IMF mission over the last two weeks, we have been sharing similar thoughts on the latest monetary and economic developments, as well as on the medium-term expectations.

The Albanian economy continues to remain within our expectations of the beginning of the year. Inflation has been kept under control within the BoA objective, though it has displayed an upward tendency compared to the previous year. The monetary policy pursued by the Bank of Albania was adequate to control the inflationary pressures. The increase of the core interest rate at end-July served to control the increase of demand and to signal our willingness for maintaining price stability. I would like underline that the Bank of Albania is determined to continue pursuing a prudent monetary policy and to monitor those developments which may have a negative impact on the macroeconomic and financial stability.

The extension of Government securities' maturity term (bonds of five year maturity were introduced today) increased the need and urge to develop their secondary market. In this context, the BoA is working rigorously to set up the necessary infrastructure in order to facilitate the Government securities operations in the secondary market. In more concrete terms, the implementation of the Delivery-Versus-Payment system constitutes a pivotal step to be taken next year. Moreover, the Bank of Albania is making efforts to computerize the register of securities held within the Bank, which would at the same time further enhance and deepen the money market.

The stability of the banking system, in particular, and of the financial system, on the whole, makes up a priority of the Bank of Albania. Therefore, our commitment bears a special important in the context of credit market developments, which has continued to record further growth. The positive developments occurred over the last year in our banking system continued to be present over the present year. The BoA enhanced its cautiousness to provide stable positive developments. To this aim, the Bank is having an intensive communication with the banking system for the implementation of measures which aim at preserving the quality of the banking activity, in particular of the crediting one.

In conclusion, I would like to thank the IMF for the assistance and constructive ideas provided over this challenging period our economy is going through.