The Bank of Albania - in its recent analyses - has been underlining the fact that its monetary policy has been a careful, financial, budgetary policy, where special emphasis has been given to the budget expenditures control versus the realized revenues ratio. Consequently, the government’s liquidity needs, up to the present moment, have been completely covered by the banking system, and therefore, the Bank of Albania financing was unnecessary. Under these circumstances the fiscal pressures on the monetary policy are weak. Following this reasoning, it could be concluded that the move of both policies (monetary and fiscal) has been in harmony and in conformity with the general economic-financial development program of the country. Domestic budget deficit financing from the banking system during 2003 is estimated to be almost at the same level as the one of 2002, being about 2.2 percent of the GDP. The stable level of the internal government borrowing, facing the rapid increase of Lek deposits, was another factor, which influenced the immediate reduction of treasury bills interest rates. The monetary policy of 2003 has continued to be careful, characterized by smoothing tendencies. This is reflected in the reduction of interest rates three times throughout the year. Watching attentively the inflation performance and the liquidity indicators in the banking system, the Bank of Albania reduced, all in all, the Repos rate by 1.5 percentage points during 2003, bring it by the end of October at the pre-crisis liquidity level of the previous year.
Table 1: General economic indicators 1996  1997  1998  1999  2000  2001  2002  2003*  Real growth of the GDP (in %)  9.1  -10.3  12.7  8.9  7.7  6.8  4.7  6.0  Number of employees (in thousand)  1,116  1,107  1,085  1,065  1,068  920.5  920  927  Unemployment percentage  12.4  14.9  17.8  18.2  16.8  16.4  15.8  15.2  17.4  42.1  8.7  -1  4.2  3.5  2.1  3.0  M3 aggregate growth  44  28  21  22  12  20  6  9.5  M3 aggregate velocity  1.82  1.72  1.92  1.73  1.64  1.51  1.58  1.66  MoB growth  14  52  -6  19  22  20  10  -3.3  New credit to the economy (Lek billion)  7.4  3.98  5.8  8  24  40.6  62.6  70.6  Inflation percentage (y-o-y)  Lek deposits (Lek million)  72,831  89,495 130,940 158,326 165,261 186,211 193,886 223,500  Budget deficit (in % of the GDP)  -11.4  -13.2  -11.3  -11.9  -9.1  -8.3  -6.2  -4.6  Domestic debt (in % of the GDP)  30.7  36.18  35.12  36.31  41.01  39.42  38.49  39.1  Current account (in % of the GDP)  -11.5  -12.03  -6.12  -7.34  -7.1  -6.1  -8.9  -8.5  Internal debt (in % of the GDP)  29.2  33.2  31.8  29.1  30.2  28.2  24.9  23.7  Average exchange rate lek/usd  104.5  148.9  150.6  137.7  143.7  143.48  140.15  123.1**  146.9  132.58  128.5  132.4  137.9**  Average exchange rate lek/euro  Note:* The GDP calculation is made by INSTAT with a different methodology, only for 1996-2000.