will recover. the imf forecasts that global growth will contract by 4. 4 percent in 2020 ( imf weo, october 2020 update ). if this materialises, the covid - 19 pandemic may possibly become one of the most economically costly pandemics in recent history. 15 | p a g e 19. these notwithstanding, the recent announcement of coronavirus vaccines with more than 90 percent efficacy, and the subsequent approval to administer these vaccines in the united kingdom and other advanced economies has fuelled optimism and restored some hope about a ‘ return to normalcy ’ in the near - term. already, coronavirus vaccines are being administered in china, russia, brazil and united states. this positive news of covid - 19 vaccine has boosted global economic recovery prospects in 2021 and beyond. the ghanaian economy and covid - 19 pandemic 15. at this stage, fellow alumni, i would like to shift the focus to how the covid - 19 pandemic impacted the domestic economy and delve into the various decisive and co - ordinated policy measures taken to moderate the financial and economic costs. 16. ladies and gentlemen, the ghanaian economy ended 2019 on a sound footing, before covid - 19 came knocking. this followed the successful implementation of a sound macroeconomic framework 16 | p a g e with fiscal consolidation and prudent monetary and exchange rate policies over the last three years, which had yielded good outcomes. inflation at 7. 9 percent was within the medium - term target band of 8±2 percent, the exchange rate was relatively stable, the current account had improved significantly alongside three consecutive years of trade surpluses of us $ 2. 26 billion, and the bank of ghana had built strong foreign exchange reserve buffers of us $ 8. 42 billion. in addition, economic growth had rebounded strongly to 6. 5 percent, supported by growth - oriented government policy initiatives to boost agriculture and manufacturing. 17. in the financial sector, the bank of ghana had successfully concluded three years of banking sector reforms, which saw an increase in the minimum capital requirement, revocation of licences of insolvent institutions ( “ banking sector clean - up ” ), and a complete overhaul of the regulatory and supervisory frameworks. the cleanup resulted in a stable and resilient banking and sdis sector that is well capitalised, liquid, and solvent. by the end of 2019, all the 17 | p a g e financial sector soundness indicators showed improvements

gent sejko : the need to reinforce understanding of economic developments and their relation to policy welcome remarks by mr gent sejko, governor of the bank of albania, at the 12th see economic research workshop, tirana, 6 december 2018. * * * ladies and gentlemen! it is a great pleasure for me to welcome all of you today to our 12th research workshop. i would like to express my sincere gratitude to our guests from academia and central banks who for 12 years have made this workshop one of the best and well - recognized economic and financial research events in albania and in the region. let me also thank all of our distinguished chairs, speakers and discussants for their engagement here today. the papers that will be presented and discussed during these 2 days will cover a wide range of economic and financial issues that concern central banks. the topics on monetary policy, financial stability, risk and novel methodologies are all very relevant to the daily activity of central banks and as such are very important to us. the bank of albania is involved in decision - making on all these issues and we provide our active support to it through our research. along with the papers that are going to be presented today in the panels, we have also decided to include and present in the poster presentations, tomorrow, some of our ongoing projects. following this workshop, the results of these research works will feed into the decision making process and help the bank of albania to make more informed decisions and improve its models and the efficiency of policy - making. for this reason, i encourage and invite you all to ask questions, to comment and to assess our work with your opinions and academic proficiency, to challenge our findings and methodologies. the nature of our research is undoubtedly influenced by our main mission and prevailing concerns. it is for that reason that the majority of our research focuses on monetary policy, price and financial stability, models related to them and the economic events that affect them the most. some of the trends that we will discuss today are global and fundamental in nature. they may not have reached our economies, yet, but they will definitely have a significant impact on our real economy and financial system in the future. for example, new technologies, such as crypto currencies, artificial intelligence and machine learning, which represent a major challenge, not only for central banks, will have various implications for monetary and financial stability. research related to these new technologies will be beneficial for both advanced and developing countries. unexpected, sometimes new, global or