PRESS RELEASE
Bank of Albania ranks first on its transparency and public communication among Central, Eastern and South-eastern European countries

The National Bank of Austria published the “Focus on the European Economic Integration” report for the second quarter of 2021, which contains economic analysis and viewpoints, as well as analytical studies on macroeconomics and issues of the Central, Eastern and South-eastern Europe (CESEE). One of the special elements studied in this report is the central banks’ transparency and communication with the public for the period 1997-2019.

The Bank of Albania ranked first among all the banks of Central, Eastern and South-eastern countries, for very active pubic communication.

The findings of this study show that the frequency of communication and the number of speeches are not correlated with the size of the economy of the country or its population. The Bank of Albania was assessed as being quite active compared with its counterparts, despite the small size of the population.

The monitoring statistics show that the frequency of communication is not correlated with the fact that the country adopts an independent monetary policy or is part of the monetary union of the European Central Bank either. Some central banks that are part of the Euro area, contribute at the same degree as other central banks that follow their independent monetary policy. 

For example, while studying the CESEE region, the data show that the Bank of Albania communicates more frequently with the public, while other central banks from the region fall relatively behind. The Bank of Albania published approximately 250 speeches, while the central bank in Turkey, which ranks second, published 100 speeches, followed by the central bank of Serbia with 90 speeches. The central banks of other countries had a much lower number of speeches. The report provides a comparison of this indicator with other countries in the European Union or Euro area and, in this framework, Albania shows results almost similar to Italy and other places such as Greece, Finland, the Netherlands, Belgium or even Austria.

Another indicator of the report was the identification of the most talked-about speech topics from central banks. Statistics suggest that the ECB, CESEE central banks and the other central banks outside the Euro area dedicate the major part of their communication to issues directly related to the monetary policy and price stability. As regard Albania, the topic which gets maximum attention from the Bank of Albania is that of financial stability.

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