PRESS RELEASE
Bank of Albania organises the 11th South-Eastern European Economic Research Workshop

On 4-5 December 2016, the Bank of Albania organized the 11th SEE Economic Research Workshop. This workshop, organized for the 11th year consecutively by the Bank of Albania, aims to promote discussion on economic research, as well as regional cooperation in South East Europe.

Representatives from the European and regional central banks, academics from universities and international financial institutions and experts from the Bank of Albania attended the workshop. During the two days of the workshop, participants presented 29 research studies, of which 13 by Bank of Albania researchers.

The workshop is organized in sessions, according to prevailing themes in the economic, political, and academic debates on issues related to the economy, finance, and central banking. Participants in this workshop have the possibility to present new research findings, to share their views, and to discuss the main developments in money markets, monetary policy implementation, financial stability safeguarding and the operational aspects of central banks.

In his address to the workshop, Gent Sejko, the Governor of the Bank of Albania, emphasised that during these two days, the topics of the presentations will aim at addressing several challenges arising from the recent economic developments, regionally and beyond. In this regard, the Governor added that considering cross-country similarities such events, which promote collective cooperation, are very important.

In his speech, Governor Sejko stated that from a strategically point of view, the main goal of economic research is to provide a strong conceptual and empirical basis for policy-making. He highlighted that, like in other European central banks, economic research at the Bank of Albania is an important function in its overall activity, which has proved to be successful in supporting the policy formulation and implementation processes. In more concrete terms, economic research has contributed though providing new methodologies based on empirical models, which have been adopted as standard tools of policy analysis and forecasts by other Departments (e.g. monetary policy, financial stability, banking supervision, etc.).

Governor Sejko thanked the participants and stated that Bank of Albania believes that high-quality research leads to higher credibility of the central bank, improves the quality of its policies, and increases the potential contribution of the central bank to the financial markets, the economy and the society. Such events are, therefore, important for central banks.