Research Papers

Digital currencies (DC) have spread quickly enough to draw the attention of policymakers and international organizations. The benefits in terms of greater speed and efficiency of payment transactions are clear. A greater ambiguity prevails regarding the risks to financial stability and monetary policy effectiveness.

In the last decade, Albania has mostly faced lower inflation rates if compared with the 2000s. This seems associated both with weak cyclical conditions as well as with the presence of mostly negative imported inflation. Therefore, both the domestic and external environments foster low (even negative) inflationary pressures.

This report summarizes the main findings from the first round of the Albanian Household Wealth Survey, conducted by the Bank of Albania in early 2019. The purpose of this survey was to collect individual data on Albanian households, focusing on wealth and its main components.

This paper aims to analyse a conventional wisdom on a key question to understand whether and to what extent bank lending in Albania is a result of demand-side or/and supply-side factors.