Last year, the Mainland of China ran a trade surplus of $ billion, equivalent to 4.5% of GDP. Foreign direct investment amounted to $ billion. Its foreign reserves are the second highest in the world. Its foreign debt amounted to only about 14% of GDP and consisting of mostly long-term loans from official sources such as the World Bank and the Asian Development Bank, and the debt service ratio at well below 10% of exports. The fiscal deficit in 1997 was small at below 1% of GDP and the monetization of such deficits is now prohibited. My contacts in Beijing have told me that even on the basis of very extreme assumptions with the amount of foreign direct investments and the growth rate of exports being halved in 1998, there will still be a balance of payments surplus. In the circumstances there really is no pressure to devalue the RMB. 17. The stability or otherwise of the RMB, understandably, would appear to some observers to have implications for the Hong Kong dollar’s link with the US dollar, particularly given the economic closeness between Hong Kong and the Mainland of China. But this does not necessarily mean that the Hong Kong dollar will need to move in sync with the RMB, in the highly unlikely event that the RMB is devalued. The Hong Kong dollar is linked to the US dollar and not to the RMB. The economic relationship has always been very close between Hong Kong and the Mainland of China.
Ardian Fullani: Monetary policy, from the past to the present Speech by Mr Ardian Fullani, Governor of the Bank of Albania, at the 10th international conference on “Monetary policy, from the past to the present”, Tirana, 26 October 2012. *  *  *  H.E. Prime Minister, Your Excellencies Ambassadors, Honourable Minister of Finance, Honourable Governors, Distinguished Guests and Participants, I am very honoured and privileged to open the proceedings of the Tenth Conference of the Bank of Albania. This conference is particularly important this year as it is organised in the framework of activities for the 100th anniversary of the Declaration of Albania’s Independence and the 20th anniversary of the Bank of Albania. While retaining the scientific approach, the conference pays tribute to the endeavours made over the years in the monetary and finance aspects. In Bank of Albania’s view, the past is an essential element for the analysis and decisionmaking, and a requisite for theoretic or empirical research. At present, this is a necessity, a challenge that the economics world is facing. To scan, diagnose and cure the situation of the economy, a successful scholar would have to be able to read the human thought. Unfortunately, such a doctor does not exist. Therefore, in our days, the economic science is turning its attention to individual characteristics such as: history, ethnography and other national traits, considering them as substantial determinants for the stochastic process that leads the behaviour of economic agents.