PRESS RELEASE
Interview of the Governor of the Bank of Albania, Mr. Ardian Fullani to Voice of America during the Spring Meetings of the World Bank and the International Monetary Fund

Question: Mr. Governor, you have come to Washington for the Spring Meetings of the International Monetary Fund. What have you discussed during the meetings with Fund's officials?

Spring meetings are an extremely important occasion for member countries to meet with highest representatives of the IMF, but simultaneously to talk with other colleagues and representatives of important international institutions about the development policies, a country's development perspectives, and about the policies a country should follow on the basis of political -economic programs.

A characteristic of this meeting was that the Deputy Managing Director of the International Monetary Fund, Mr. Murilo Portugal confirmed to come to Tirana on May. It is the first time that such a high personality of the IMF is coming to Albania and undoubtedly, this indicates a maturity of Albania and a greater commitment of the IMF to support the reforms in Albania.

Dealing a little bit with the macroeconomic stability of the country: For some years it is said that Albania has a stable macroeconomic situation and a growth fluctuating within the limits of 5-6 percent, while it is known that Albanian economy is largely based on services system, instead of being based on industrial output. Under these conditions, how will this economic growth be maintained in the future?

The economic growth of a country is important. Economic issues are always open for discussion in such meetings with the IMF and beyond it. The main elements are the ones related to structural reforms. Therefore, it is very important to carry out reforms at planned paces, in order to maintain these high development rates.

Which are some of these elements?

Energy is one of the key problems to which we should pay a special importance. Solutions to the energy problem should be long-term and steady ones, guaranteeing not only the supplying of the economy with energy, but also at low costs.

It is largely spoken about the Albanian economy informality. How much has it really damaged the economy?

I am not of the opinion that informality in Albania or elsewhere can be eliminated by means of slogans or campaigns. Our strategy has been as follows: reduction of informality comes naturally, by establishing a broad structure of services. The financial and banking system development itself, credit sector development, payments and banking sector development, have made Albania presently enjoy a qualitative financial service, providing a large variety of products, naturally leading to reduced informality. Credit growth in the country by 50 to 60 percent a year, increased banking activity through banks' windows, increased volume of transactions carried out through banks compared to those in cash, development of international payments and of many new banking products for absorbing officially the emigrants' remittances, are factors that have obviously influenced on curtailing informality in Albania.

Do you see any risks in such a rapid growth of credit to Albania, under the conditions when no necessary rules exist for controlling this phenomenon?

We should take into account that two years ago, the credit to the Albanian economy was 7 percent of GDP, whereas currently it has reached 21 percent of GDP. Actually, this is a process of constant growth, but based on our analysis, this is not an uncontrolled growth. There is noticed increased financing, not only for consumer goods but also for investments. Also, the variety of products supplied by banks has increased, with regards to loans for house purchases and consumer loans, which have undergone a natural development.