These challenges increase ambiguity, uncertainty and volatility in goods, services and financial, markets, broaden and intertwine the nature of shocks and place the authorities vis-à-vis new and unprecedented phenomena. These developments render the well management of monetary policies and financial stability even more difficult As a result, scientific research needs to: explore and propose new solutions, more efficient empirical and theoretical models for policy implementation by central banks; assess the effects of the adopted policies; and, carefully observe the side effects in the economy or the financial system, which may potentially accompany such policies. Due to unconventional monetary policies, central banking is practically in unexplored territories; therefore, it is necessary to carry out an assessment of how the economy reacts to shocks under such circumstances. The Bank of Albania is interested in identifying potential shocks and their modelling with a view to guaranteeing optimal solutions in terms of prices, economic activity, employment and financial system soundness. For that reason, we invite you to discuss openly and thoroughly all the papers that will be presented during these two days. This would serve to discuss about their findings, improve them and assess their effectiveness for the Bank of Albania’ decision making. The Bank of Albania deems that the economy and the financial system are currently sound and in line with our expectations and forecasts.
The present indicators of prices and economic growth are not yet at their long-term equilibriums; however, they do not present surprises that would call for immediate attention of the Bank of Albania and change of monetary and financial stability policies. They are in line with our expectations and are very well serviced by the actual decision-making course of action. In concrete terms, consumer prices, the main objective of the monetary policy, returned to an upward trajectory and are expected to progressively approach the 3% target. Economic activity 1/2  BIS central bankers' speeches  remains stable, at positive figures, reflecting a slight upward trend, and is expected to perform along similar trends in the future. Nevertheless, the current figures appear still far from the optimal conditions and there is place for further improvement in both the inflation rate and the economic activity. In addition, there is place for faster growth of lending and monetary expansion, yet, subject to the situation in the balance sheets of the private sector and banking system. The fall in interest rates is transmitted to all segments of the financial market, contributing to the decrease of existing credit costs and providing the possibility for investments in new projects. The monetary policy transmission has helped somewhat to mitigate the negative effects and improve the households and firms’ balance sheets.