PRESS CONFERENCE
Questions and Answers at the Press Conference of the Governor of the Bank of Albania on 27 March 2013

Question - Governor Fullani, I would like to ask a few questions about the latest crisis in Cyprus. First, do you think that the Cypriot crisis can hit the financial system stability in the Western Balkans in a direct or indirect fashion? Second, is the Cypriot crisis a signal showing that the euro zone has not stabilised yet? There has been a successive recurrence of shocks, initially in Greece and later on in Spain, Italy and the most recent one in Cyprus. Do you expect other risks to the European financial system?

Answer - A famous quote says that prediction is very difficult, especially if it's about the future. The question is highly complex and the answer requires more time than I actually have at my disposal. I would like to specify that the present-day crisis is no longer a crisis that can spread across a number of other countries. The Troika has already localised the crisis and has taken all the necessary measures to keep it localised, that is in Cyprus, both in terms of its responsibility and solution. The country's responsibilities and its detachment from any other macroeconomic and financial environments will be put in the balance. The opening of banks yesterday in Greece, as they were closed for several days, showed that there was no influence of the Cypriot crisis. We, naturally, expect the opening of banks in Cyprus to make a better judgement. Thus, this concern has been localised in the Cypriot banks. It is important to note that there is neither direct nor indirect exposure of the Albanian banking system to the Cypriot crisis. We, therefore, guarantee the stability of the Albanian banking system from the Cypriot banks' crisis and some individual banks in particular.