The reward of an excellent work in an unknown domain is the 6900 students who have chosen to attend as an elective subject “Personal finance in your hands” published by the Bank of Albania. In cooperation with the Ministry of  BIS central bankers’ speeches  1  Education and Science, we are endeavouring to make this book available in every school and to each student with the ultimate goal for them to be educated financially and empowered to manage personal finance. Only in this academic year, high-school students in 36 districts of Albania chose this book as an elective subject, making us optimistic and forward-looking. We strongly believe that the today’s young generation will be the protagonists of tomorrow’s economic life. For this purpose, we need to make our utmost investment for their formation, in order to ensure not only their future, but also the country’s future. The youth are eager and capable to assimilate, process and convey information, habits, or new products in any field of life. They are the transmitters of innovation, the most energetic and progressive segment of the society. It is our moral, professional and institutional responsibility to invest for a qualitative education of the young generation. To us, enhancing financial literacy is crucial. A well-educated nation guarantees its country’s welfare and progress. Therefore, we have decided to choose the young generation as our strategic partner to realize this challenge. We believe in their idealism, positive energy and pure spirit.
In June, it was announced that the swap arrangement would be phased out by gradually adjusting the minimum price to the bond rates prevailing in this market at that time. And finally, in October, Norges Bank tightened the collateral requirements for loans. Our interest rate forecasts were revised up and indicated that the key policy rate would be raised when the impact of the financial crisis began to wane. Since October 2009, the key policy rate has been increased by a total of 0.75 percentage point to 2 per cent. Our March forecast indicates that the key policy rate should be increased gradually towards a more normal level, but at a slower pace than expected last autumn. The events in Europe and in financial markets in recent weeks have increased the uncertainty surrounding the outlook for the European and the Norwegian economy and for the interest rate. 4. Some lessons from the financial crisis  Norges Bank’s implementation of monetary policy shall be oriented towards low and stable inflation. The operational target of monetary policy shall be annual consumer price inflation of approximately 2.5 per cent over time. In addition, interest rate changes can contribute to smoothing swings in output and employment. In assessing the outlook for prices and output, we also take account of house prices, overall credit and the krone exchange rate. These variables are thereby also given weight in interest rate setting.