BANK OF ALBANIA

PRESS RELEASE
Governor Sejko: Public lecture, virtually, hosted by the London School of Economics and Political Science (LESE), 7 October 2021, 17:00 pm

Publication date: 08.10.2021

 

On 8 October 2021, the Governor of the Bank of Albania, Mr Gent Sejko delivered a public lecture, virtually, hosted by the London School of Economics and Political Science (LESE), on: “Planning for the Post-COVID world: central bank policies in emerging economies”..

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Governor Sejko focused his presentation on three main issues. At the beginning of the lecture, Mr Sejko discussed the experience of the SEE region with the last three crises: the Global Financial Crisis, 2008-2009; the European Sovereign Debt Crisis, 2010-2012; and the current one triggered by the Covid-19 pandemic.

Focusing on the Covid-19 crisis, Mr Sejko stated that in March 2020, Albania, like the rest of the world, faced with an unprecedented situation, the health crisis caused by the COVID-19, which forced governments to impose severe lockdown measures and disrupt many activities.

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Against this hard backdrop, in parallel with the health crisis, institutions had to deal also with the economic situation, which was directly affected by this crisis. In this framework, the measures undertaken in a timely manner by the main institutions in collaboration with each other at home were of a vital importance.

All the institutions coordinated their joint efforts to help economic agents tackling the difficult conditions and build up the possibilities for a fast recovery.

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As one of the central institutions in Albania, the Bank of Albania undertook the adequate necessary measures, in a timely manner to support the Albania economy which was also hardly hid by the pandemic.  These measures helped at mitigating the negative effects on the welfare of enterprises and households, as well as the establishment of premises for a very rapid recovery of the post-pandemic economy.

The Governor highlighted that the Bank of Albania, by continuously monitoring the situation, made full use of a set of operational tools and the available regulatory space to minimising the consequences of the pandemic on the economy and particularly on the Albanian financial system.

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The measures in place have yielded their result, by guaranteeing the preservation of the monetary and financial stability of Albania, and easing the costs of the crisis to the Albanian businesses and households.

In addition, Mr Sejko pointed out that a set of reforms undertaken by the Albanian authorities, with a direct impact on maintaining of financial stability, coupled with a timely coordination with international institutions had a crucial role in successfully dealing with this situation.

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Concluding, Governor Sejko stated that along with the overcoming of the crisis caused by the pandemic, the attention of institutions is focused on the new challenges to the economic outlook, like: dealing with the recent supply-side shock of global commodity prices; navigating the policy normalization conundrum; and assessing potential structural impacts on the economy.

The lecture of Governor Sejko was followed by discussions of professors at the London School of Economics and Political Sciences (LSE), Mr Ricardo Reis, Ms Piroska Nagy-Mohácsi, and Mr Vassilis Monastiriotis. The panellists assessed very positively the management of this crisis in Albania. They emphasised that Albania, notwithstanding being a small country in the face of this global crisis, in a situation of many questions and deep economic, political and social changes, thanks to the swift reaction and the coordination of the economic policies, succeeded to exit this situation and start the economic rebound.

In dealing with this crisis, the professors noted the efficiency of fiscal stimulus in coordination with the monetary policy, as two key factors contributing to a rather complete and effective response to the crisis, and its expected impacts on national level.

Then, they commented the measures taken by the Bank of Albania within its mandate which complemented considerably the fiscal policy and underscored that thanks to this coordination, the deterioration of the situation remained temporary and now Albania is on the path towards the sustainable economic growth.

Also, the professors at LSE thanked Governor Sejko for delivering the lecture and the issued addressed in, which are rather present and of a highly interest to participants.

At the end, Governor Sejko answered to the questions of the audience attending the lecture.