Within a few weeks, Spain will be holding general elections, which should be cause for a far-reaching debate on these challenges. A minimum consensus should ultimately emerge on the policies best suited to tackling them, thus ensuring that such policies are durable (a key factor if they are to be successful). Our ability to secure lasting improvements to the well-being of the general public and real convergence with our European partners will largely depend on this. 26  Stuhler, Grébol and Machelet are the joint authors of the forthcoming paper Educational Mobility in Spain. 27  Grébol, Machelett, Stuhler and Villanueva (2023). 28  This statistical relationship has been called “The Great Gatsby Curve”. Corak (2013). 9
According to assessments made by the Bank of Albania, there exist some long-term factors whose operation has influenced on appreciating the Lek’s value: •  Constant consolidation of the country’s economic stability. •  Interest rate spread between the Lek and the foreign currencies. •  Consolidation of public finances and budget deficit, dictating a low government demand for monetary assets. •  Stable remittances by Albanian emigrants working abroad. In the meantime, during 2004 the exchange rate performance was also impacted by specific factors of the year. Specific factors relate to starting of tourism earlier than in the previous years, rise of agricultural produce and decline of demand for agricultural merchandise imports, impacting on the supply and demand for foreign currency in terms of the Lek appreciation. Also, the international foreign exchange market developments are reflected in our foreign exchange market. The euro appreciation versus the dollar over more than a year is reflected in the reduction of the dollar’s value even in our country, though no strengthening of the euro is observed. During 2004, the dollar was depreciated by 7.5 percent against the euro in the international market. During 2004, the Bank of Albania intervened in the foreign exchange market in terms of purchasing foreign currency, in an effort to prevent large exchange rate fluctuations reflected mainly during the summer and end-year period. Financial markets Growth of deposits in Lek, in the presence of a low government demand for monetary assets, created premises for increasing banks’ liquidity and extending interbank market activity.