Looking ahead, I wish to take this opportunity to state that despite the bad experiences in the past, the Bank continues to extend an arm of friendship that aims to foster better relationships between the exemployees and the Bank. We shall continue to regard you as members of the Bank’s extended family. As retirees, we consider most of you as persons with vast experience and expertise coupled with a huge reservoir of institutional knowledge, which if natured well, can be a great source of information for future generations. The Bank will Endeavour to invite you to various functions as retirees whenever opportunities arise, especially when we organize historical events. We consider you as an important part of the Bank’s history. Ladies and Gentlemen, there are many ways of leaving employment including dismissal, discharge, resignation or even death. In my view, retirement is the most admirable of them all. It is the ripe way of leaving formal employment, and therefore, a goal that every employee strives for. I congratulate you for achieving this. Retirement should not be viewed as an end but rather as a beginning of a new life. It is my hope that you will find life after retirement fulfilling and a fitting reward for many years of hard work. It is my earnest appeal to all retirees to utilize all the skills and knowledge you have acquired during your working life most especially in the Bank, to use your retirement resources wisely by investing prudently.
Forecasts for a low inflation level in the period ahead have dictated the implementation of an accommodative monetary policy in the last quarters. The policy rate cuts have already been passed through to interest rates in the interbank and deposits market, and to most of government securities’ yields. Interest rates on loans have also reflected the expansionary stance of the monetary policy of the Bank of Albania, but they continue to contain high risk premiums for credit risk and other risks related to long-term investment. The slow performance of the economy is also reflected in the monetary indicators. Money supply continued to increase at low annual rates, standing at 2.1% in March. This performance has reflected the decrease in credit to the private sector and the lower financing needs of the public sector. Credit to the private sector shrank 2.4% in March. Besides the weak demand from businesses and households, the sluggish performance of credit reflects the banks’ conservative lending policies. This approach is reflected not only in the interest rates on loans, but also in other lending standards applied by the banking system. In this regard, the Bank of Albania deems that the banking system in Albania has room for and should adopt a more appropriate behaviour towards crediting the Albanian economy. The country’s economic and financial reality, on-going monetary policy easing and our liquidity-injection operations, as well as the adaptation of our regulations to the market situation provide the premises for faster crediting to the economy.