From the aggregate demand, it was driven by the growth in consumption, investments and exports. The services, industry and construction sectors mainly benefited from this expansion of aggregate demand. A notable development in 2017 was the positive performance in tourism, which provided a positive impetus to economic growth. Together with the high levels of foreign direct investments, it contributed also to the 2/9  BIS central bankers' speeches  increase in foreign currency inflows in the Albanian economy. Employment increased by 3.3% in 2017, driven largely by the increase in the services sector. In parallel to the increase in employment, the unemployment rate fell, from 14.2% at the end of 2016, to 13.4% at the end of 2017. The decrease in the current account deficit averaged 6.9% of the GDP in 2017, against the 7.6% registered in the previous year. Its improvement reflected the increase in tourism and other services of the business. Fiscal indicators marked consolidation, reflecting a low level of budget deficit and the maintained control over the public debt. From the financial aspect, the Albanian banking system maintained good indicators of liquidity, profitability and capitalisation. The financial situation of enterprises has been improving, as illustrated by their high liquidity levels and the progressive decline in the nonperforming loans ratio. Lastly, inflation has been upward, averaging 2.0% from 1.3% in the previous year.
In fact this is not so different from what we have done before. Although we have always decided on asset purchases for a 3 or 4 month period at a time, we have often rolled into further purchases. The total amount is only decided – and then only temporarily – at the point we stop! So we could contemplate a rather longer horizon for asset purchases, even if we continue to cautiously decide on a few months at a time. BIS central bankers’ speeches  7  The majority of the MPC took a view in February not to make any more purchases. I accept that there was a good case to be made for that position, even if on balance I took a different view. But I think we need to keep under review whether there is merit in undertaking more asset purchases under a slightly different dynamic approach. Indeed the February meeting Minutes made it clear that the Committee will keep all its options open. Funding for lending Finally, I want to turn to our most recent approach to credit easing. The Funding for Lending Scheme (the FLS) was launched in 2012 jointly with HM Treasury after we saw that interest rates being charged to borrowers had been rising at a time when our asset purchase programme should have been bearing down on market rates. The principal reason for rising lending rates was that bank funding costs were being kept high by the continuing crisis in the euro area.