PRESS RELEASE
Governor Sejko meets representatives of the International Monetary Fund mission

On 27 September 2022, the Governor of the Bank of Albania, Mr Gent Sejko, met with the International Monetary Fund (IMF) Mission team, led by Ms Yan Sun, the IMF Mission Chief for Albania. The reason of this meeting is to discuss with the Albanian authorities issues related to the Article IV.

Discussions in the meeting focused on the recent macro-economic developments, the performance of the Albanian economy in the view of a global challenging environment, characterised by uprising inflation rates and on the responses of authorities in this regard.  In more concrete terms, the issues addressed in this meeting were: the current performance and perspective of both inflation and economic activity; developments in the banking and financial sector; as well as the adequate economic policies, which will enable the preservation of macroeconomic equilibriums and support the sustainable and long-term growth of Albania. In addition, certain priorities of structural reforms which will underpin the further development of output potential in Albania and address some of its structural shortages were also discussed in this meeting.

At the beginning, Governor Sejko highlighted that despite the high inflation rate, the economic growth outlook for Albania remains positive.  Aiming to support the Albanian economy, the Bank of Albania has started the normalisation of its monetary policy stance in order to control the inflationary pressures and establish the conditions for inflation to converge towards the target within a medium-term horizon.

The Bank of Albania through the implementation of prudential policies has provided for calm financial markets, a sound banking system, and sufficient foreign exchange reserves.  All these together coupled with the premises for monetary and fiscal policies reaction, are an additional guarantee for dealing with the critical situations. 

Mr Sejko, emphasised that the Bank of Albania is willing to take all necessary actions pursuant to the law, to support the banking activity and contribute to the further development of Albania and the stability of the financial system.

The IMF representatives assessed that the monetary policy stance has been and remains adequate, thus providing a crucial contribution in both the macro-economic environment and the development of the financial system.

Next, they stated that the international situation is still unclear and volatile, thus intensifying the uncertainty and the need for carefully monitoring the dynamics of developments in inflation.

In this framework, participants concurred on the key importance to continuously monitor the situations and coordinate the policies from the Albanian authorities, by taking the right measures in a timely manner and providing the necessary stimuli for the long term growth of the economy.

At the conclusion of the meeting, participants commented the very good cooperation between the Bank of Albania and the International Monetary Fund in the context of the IMF mission visits, the trainings provided in the framework of the IMF technical assistance and beyond.