PRESS RELEASE
Governor of the Bank of Albania, Mr. Ardian Fullani, addressed the end-of-year meeting with journalists, analysts and media executives

On 20 December 2013, on the occasion of the end of the year, the Governor of the Bank of Albania, Mr. Ardian Fullani, addressed a meeting with journalists of the print and electronic media, political/economic analysts and media executives in Albania.

Governor Fullani opened the meeting with his best wishes for a happy and successful New Year, and expressed his appreciation of the journalists' role in and contribution to implementation of Bank of Albania's primary mandate to achieve and maintain price stability.

During this meeting, Governor Fullani introduced Bank of Albania's calendar for 2014 dedicated to agriculture and its products, stressing the importance of this sector's development to the country's economy.

At the end of the activity, the Governor awarded three prizes to winners of the open contest on 'Governor's award for the best diploma, 2013', as follows:

The first prize was awarded to Ms. Eda Dokle, from the Charles University in the Czech Republic, for her Master's thesis on 'Inflation Targeting in a Dollarized Economy'.

The second prize was awarded to Mr. Minella Kalluci, from Bocconi University in Italy, for his diploma thesis on 'Main critiques of the credit rating agencies and determinants of sovereign debt rating: Evidence from the euro area'.

The third prize was awarded to Mr. Ergi Take, from the University of Tirana, Faculty of Economics, for his diploma thesis on 'Validity of Okun's law in Albanian economy (1980-2012)'. 

This is an annual contest open to Albanian students graduating during the year in Albania or abroad, for scientific researches into issues related to monetary and international economics, price and financial stability, economic integration of Balkan countries to European Union, Bank of Albania's activity, Albanian financial system, banks' behaviour and role in the Albanian economy, and issues related to other macro and microeconomic aspects of the overall economy.