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Albania's Central Bank Cuts Key Interest Rate
Tirana | 28 October 2009 | Gjergj Erebara
Ardian Fullani, Governor, Bank of Albania
The move is designed to help the economy recover from the aftershocks of the global financial crisis.
“Inflation is relatively low and we can proceed with lower interest rates, but the efficiency of our decision will depend on the government demand for debts,” Central Bank Governor Ardian Fullani said in a press conference on Wednesday.
“Inflation is relatively low and we can proceed with lower interest rates, but the efficiency of our decision will depend on the government demand for debts,” Central Bank Governor Ardian Fullani said in a press conference on Wednesday.
The Bank changed its main interest rate most recently in January 2009, but the interest on bonds denominated in lek continued their upward trend due to strong demand from the government and scarce liquidity available to buy the country's public debt.
Fullani said that the government should be realistic in its revenue forecasts and expenditures for 2010 and should work more assiduously to reduce the budget deficit to pre-crisis levels.
Albania will run a deficit of 6.5 per cent of GDP this year and has projected a further 15 per cent increase in budget revenues and expenditures for next year - a forecast considered unrealistic by the Central Bank and IMF.
The IMF projects that Albania will experience 2 per cent GDP growth in 2009, and 3 per cent growth in the next fiscal year. However, the government's projections are twice as high.
