As a matter of fact forward-looking decisions should be made on the basis of an ever larger and timely information; They should be constantly consulted with specialized economic and financial market agents. The Bank of Albania, likewise other central banks, endeavors to increase the qualitative and quantitative data base, in order to improve analyses and the decision-making process in making new steps. The finalization of the several-year project of the Bank of Albania, along which the Business and Consumer Confidence Indicator was consolidated, is an accomplishment of one of the medium-term development strategy objectives of our institution. The decision to publish these indicators passed through a prudent process and matured only after experts and decision-makers of the Bank of Albania were convinced that the confidence indicators, together with other indicators, revealed valuable additional  BIS Review 36/2009  1  information about the recent and future developments in the country’s real sector of the economy. Allow me to briefly summarize some of the basic concepts on confidence, tendency and the foregoing indicators. They have been widely used in many advanced countries of the world, particularly over the last two decades. These indicators are constructed on the basis of information collected from surveys, which are technically referred to as Business and Consumer Confidence/Tendency Surveys. The Bank of Albania conducts these surveys in cooperation with INSTAT.
All the users of this information should be aware that this information does not substitute or duplicate the official macroeconomic statistics. These qualitative indicators are compiled on the basis of opinions and expectations of the interviewed economic agents. I would like to be more concrete relate to this point. The Bank of Albania, having the awareness, independence and a certain degree of institutional transparency, and aiming at achieving high professionalism, plays an active and proactive role in the country’s economic development. Economic analysis is under direct function of the monetary policy decision-making process. In essence, the decision-making precedes the medium-term developments, sustaining the maintaining of price stability as the primary policy target drafted and implemented by the Bank of Albania. Profound analysis of the past, present and future developments of the economy contribute to appropriate decision-making. I assure you that building a complete “picture” of the present and the future of an economy is a rather difficult process, not only for an emerging economy, such as that of Albania, but also for the most advanced economies of the world. Economic and financial developments are accompanied by elements of insecurity, which have become, as you already know, dominant in last two years. Making decisions on the future of this already globalised world of economic links, requires professional maturity. Assessing and selecting appropriate and reliable statistical information requires profound intuitive abilities. Making the selected data bank beneficial to the decisionmaking, requires analytical foresight.