TIRANA, October 3
The Supervisory Council at the Bank of Albania (BoA) decided to keep the key rate unchanged at 1 percent despite the low consumer price index rate and slow economic growth.
BoA’s governor Gent Sejko said in a press conference following Wednesday’s meeting of the Supervisory Council that a Key Rate cut can be expected in the future.
Regarding the second quarter (Q2) GDP estimate (2.3%) released by the Institute of Statistics (INSTAT), Sejko highlighted that in terms of production, agriculture and services grew while construction and industry declined.
Q2 Albania’s Economic Growth Left at 2.31%
Speaking for the first half of 2019, BoA’s governor pointed out that the economic slowdown was affected by the energy sector and the competition of major energy projects. Sejko added that BoA expects these factors to be transitional.
“Their effect will be reflected in 2019 GDP estimate, but it does not affect our assessment on the overall state of economy and middle-term trends,” Sejko stated.
In the meantime, he stressed the significant increase in private sector lending and a reduction of non-performing loans to 11 percent.
BoA’s scenario foresees economic growth acceleration during the two upcoming years, while CPI will reach the 3 percent rate by the second half of 2021.
Read full speech of BoA’s governor HERE
Source/Photo Credit: BoA
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