In this framework, the Bank of Albania continued to work on the consolidation of inter-institutional collaboration, through the National Payment System Committee (NPSC), which it chairs. The Committee has initiated several projects, most importantly the projects on the compilation and implementation of the draft-strategy for the reformation of the small value payments market, the increase of financial inclusion and the assessment of remittances market. The successful accomplishment of the main legal obligations is supported by a range of other functions of the Bank of Albania. I will now briefly mention some of the improvements in these activities. 5. Other activities of the Bank of Albania  7/9  BIS central bankers' speeches  In the field of statistics, the Bank of Albania has intensified its work to align the methodology on statistics with the international standards and their harmonization with the acquis communitare. In concrete terms, the methodologies on the preparation of financial soundness, interest rates, financial accounts and international reserve indicators are revised. The Statistics Code of Practice at the Bank of Albania was adopted for the first time. This code ensures integrity, quality, access and confidentiality in using and reporting the statistics, according to the international standards. Also, the Bank of Albania, for the first time, published the policy and calendar of statistics review, which ensures full transparency related with the review of released statistics. Since June, Albania implements the IMF‘s Enhanced General Data Dissemination e-GDDS). Some of the statistics are compiled by the Bank of Albania.

These meetings enabled the members of the Committee to learn about the internal control systems and risk management procedures. Upon the proposal of the Inspector General, and following consultations at the Audit Committee, the Supervisory Council approved, for the first time, the level of tolerance to the operational risk at the Bank of Albania. The activity of the Supervisory Council has been faithfully published in our periodic press releases. 2. Monetary Policy of the Bank of Albania The monetary policy decision making is based on a comprehensive, consistent and transparent set of macroeconomic analyses and forecasts. They are supported by the whole range of information available at the time of decision making, and the expertise and judgement of the Bank’s experts on the trends of economic development and the monetary policy pass-through mechanism. I will elaborate on the underlying reasons of our decision making to maintain the accommodative monetary policy stance in 2017 and the assessment of its effects on the economy in the following. 2.1 Economic developments and monetary policy in 2017 The Albanian economy performed positively throughout 2017. The volume of economic activity trended upward, spare capacities in the labour market reduced, while the main indicators of economic and financial stability improved. Following are presented a few figures to illustrate it. According to Instat statistics, the volume of economic activity grew 3.8% in 2017, registering a positive dynamics compared to 2.2% and 3.4% growth in 2015 and 2016. The economic activity expanded on a broad base.