PRESS RELEASE
Governor Sejko attends the 9th Research Conference of the National Bank of the Republic of North Macedonia

On 29 September 2023, Governor Sejko attended the 9th Annual Research Conference, hosted by the National Bank of the Republic of North Macedonia, on: "Resurgence of inflation and the new geopolitical realities, redesigning macroeconomic policy“, that took place in Skopje, North Macedonia.

The Conference proceedings were opened by the Governor of the National Bank of the Republic of North Macedonia, Ms Anita Angelovska Bezhoska and the President of the North Macedonia, Mr Stevo Pendarovski. 

The 9th conference focused on the destabilizing world events in the last few years and the challenges that the global economy is faced with. This new environment of economic policies has brought to light many issues related to inflation, its drivers, dynamics, as well as the appropriate response from institutions. After several decades during which the global economic integration has increased, the world is facing the risk of politically driven geo-economic fragmentation.

Organized in several panels, where the prospects of our region in this new global environment were discussed, the Conference gathered distinguished speakers from international financial and academic institutions, as well as from the central bank, such as: Mr Boris Vujčić; Governor of the Croatian National Bank; Mr Boštjan Vasle, Governor of the Bank of Slovenia; Mr Gediminas Simkus, Governor of the Bank of Lithuania; Mr Martin Galstyan, Governor of the Central Bank of Armenia; Mr Steven Vanackere, Deputy Governor of the National Bank of Belgium etc.

THE REGIONAL EU PERSPECTIVE IN THE NEW GLOBAL ENVIRONMENT

Governor Sejko was part of the panel on: “Policy Panel on the regional EU perspective in the new global environment". Discussions in this panel addressed the new challenges related to this issue and their interaction with the objectives of the central banks.

Regarding the surge in prices, Governor Sejko stated that Albania has succeeded to manage the impact of shocks coming from imported prices.  In this regard, Albanian recorded one of the lowest levels of inflation in the region, both in its peak of 8.3% in October 2022, and recently at by 4% in August 2023.

Safeguarding price stability is a result of a combination of factors: first, early tightening of monetary policy, which contributed to preventing the full spread of inflationary pressures from the euro area in the Albanian economy; second, from contained dependence on international energy markets and price control of renewable energy produced in the country; and finally, from the exchange rate appreciation during 2022 and 2023, which has also helped to ease inflationary pressures on the imported goods. 

In this view, the Governor emphasized that price stability continues to remain the focus of the BoA’s monetary policy. “However, as a potentially game-changing event in geopolitics, the war in Ukraine represents both challenges and opportunities during our path toward EU integration. Therefore, we must continue with our agenda of structural reforms and adapt it to the new realities," said the Governor.

Mr Sejko also provided an overview the progress made by the BoA in the framework of the European integration process, especially in areas such as banking supervision and payment systems.

In the context of the latter, Governor Sejko focused on the reforms and initiatives undertaken by the Bank of Albania regarding the development and modernization of payment systems, aiming to their further approximation with the Single Euro Payments Area (SEPA).

Concluding, the Governor added that central banks, facing the growing challenges coming from continuous technological revolutions and financial innovations, must continuously adapt existing practices and adjust to the new reality.