PRESS RELEASE
Mr Gent Sejko, Governor of the Bank of Albania, held a meeting with journalists, analysts and media directors.

On 23 December 2016, on the occasion of the end of the year, Mr Gent Sejko, the Governor of the Bank of Albania, met with journalists of the print and electronic media, economic analysts, executives and other representatives of the media in Albania.

In his opening address, Governor Sejko, thanked the representatives of the media for the time, attention and the importance they have dedicated to all the press communications of the institution by delivering the messages and conclusions of the Bank of Albania to the public.

The Governor of the Bank of Albania, Mr Sejko, added that the role of the media is considered of a particular importance by the Bank of Albania, in conveying information to economic agents as well as to the general public, on time and with quality.

Concluding and looking forward to enhanced cooperation and better understanding in 2017, the Governor wished the guests a successful and prosperous new year.

During the end-of-year event, the three winners of The Governor's Award for the Best Diploma 2016 were announced. This annual event is dedicated to Albanian students graduated this year in Albania and abroad, for scientific research on issues related to the international monetary economics, price and financial stability , economic integration etc.

1. 1. The first prize was awarded to Ms Danjela Guxha, a student at the University of Freiburg, in Germany, for her thesis on: "Portfolio optimization through the evaluation of the expected losses in the context of the multi-dimensional hyperbolic general method". This award was handed over to her by Mr Gent Sejko, the Governor of the Bank of Albania.

This study contributes to the financial field by proposing, applying and evaluating a new, alternative model for the modelling of risk factors of a investment portfolio. The paper discusses the optimization of investment portfolios based on the general hyperbolic method of financial assets returns in Germany. Specifically, the study proposes the hyperbolic general distribution as a better proxy of risk factors than normal distribution, by testing this hypothesis in the German financial markets. This study represents a contemporary and interesting topic related to finance and it's applicable in the field of foreign exchange reserve management, banking supervision and financial stability.

2. The second prize was awarded to Ms Pamela Qendrai, a student at the University of Bonn, in Germany for her thesis on: " The transition from school to work and youth unemployment in Europe". This award was handed over to her by the First Deputy Governor of the Bank of Albania, Elisabeta Gjoni.

The material analyses a very interesting topic related to the labour market and youth unemployment in Europe, mainly in the countries of the Southern and Eastern Europe, which were affected by higher unemployment rates after the recent global financial crisis. The thesis focuses primarily on the labour market of recent college graduates. Some of the results show that the financial crisis has affected mostly youth unemployment in the South-Eastern Europe, where appropriate level of education and work experience are the factors that contribute to shorter period of being unemployed after the completion of studies.

3. The third prize was awarded to Ms Anisa Plepi, student of the University of Tirana for her thesis on: "The role of monetary policy in influencing the decisions of economic agents: An assessment for Albania based on the theory of the term structure of interest rates. This award was handed over to her by the Second Deputy Governor of the Bank of Albania, Natasha Ahmetaj.

The paper is focused on the role that the monetary policy of the Bank of Albania has in the economic and financial decision-making of economic agents. This topic certainly has our utmost interest and attention not only on what we do, but also making us understand the perception of students of economics for raising hypotheses on policies and challenges that we already have and on those expected in the future. More specifically, the results point out the role of the monetary policy in the short and medium term, evidencing the uncertainty element that affects the decision of economic agents, as well as highlighting the important role that expectations of economic agents have in the transmission of monetary policy effects.