##ominated in lek and euro continued to go up, as a result of monetary policy tightening by the fed and the european central bank during 2006. simultaneously, the interest rates of loans extended in these currencies went up. the interests of six - month to one - year loans in euro and six - month loans in usd underwent the highest rise. at end of 2006, the weighted average interests of loans in usd amounted to 9. 42 percent and interests of loans in euro amounted to 8. 17 percent, from 8. 47 percent and 7. 95 percent they were respectively at end of the previous year. 6. exchange rate during 2006, the albanian lek has maintained its appreciating trend against the principal foreign currencies, though at a low intensity. in effective nominal annual terms, the lek has been appreciated on average by 1. 1 percent during 2006. during the previous year, this appreciation was 2. 8 percent. the lek - foreign currency interest rate spread, though downward during three latest years, continued to be at positive levels. economic developments during 2006 have sustained a stable domestic currency. the lek ’ s appreciating pressures have been concentrated mainly on july - august and december. besides the seasonal entry of foreign currency, which is the main factor of the lek ’ s appreciation over this period, the key interest rate increase has also been reflected in the market. the high foreign currency supply over this period has been absorbed partly by the bank of albania ’ s interventions, in respect of the target on the rise of net international reserve and in compliance with the country ’ s overall macroeconomic program. 7. monetary policy instruments fixed - price one - week repurchase agreement is the main instrument employed during 2006. according to the liquidity situation, the bank of albania has switched from repurchase agreements to reverse agreements, while the maturity term has changed from weekly to quarterly. this spectre of movements has been imposed by seasonal factors, by the budget behaviour and by the need to reveal certain monetary policy signals. to meet longer - term needs of the market for liquidity during the four last months of 2006, four treasury bill outright purchase transactions were carried out, at a total nominal value of all 3. 2 billion. during 2006 commercial banks employed the overnight deposit facility for investing their free liquidities with the bank of albania, on average at all 1. 6 billion a day or all 0. 82 billion more than in 2005. overnight credit has

##ly, all the recent incentives and the multiple opportunities albania provides. also, i think it is just the time to integrate even the joint regional projects into our long - term development plans. road infrastructure, energy, communication, tourism and other areas are still underdeveloped in regional level. therefore, i assess that regional projects of strategic nature raise the interest of domestic and foreign investors. if taken separately the economies of the region are relatively small, but altogether they form an attractive market, with more investment opportunities. in recent years, it is noticed that the penetration of foreign investments in our region is relatively small and mainly, it reflects the privatization process of important public properties. the same thing has occurred to the albanian economy. more concretely, during 2000 – 2006, the overall foreign direct investments, according to the balance of payments statistics, are estimated to about usd 1. 45 billion, about 3. 5 percent of gdp realised over the same period. if we would identify the reasons why fdis inflows are so modest, we might mention the complex problems characterising our region, while different reasons that reduce the absorbing capability of our economy exist even in the national plan. the bank of albania deems that the country ’ s current stage of development creates great possibilities in this regard. the experience of the newly acceded countries has indicated that the signing of the stabilisation and association agreement and the following negotiations have been associated by high fdi inflows. however, we can not assume that this phenomenon will be automatically present even in albania. therefore, the bank of albania deems that further deepening of structural reforms is necessary and that this process should be followed by improvements in the business climate and by enhancement of the degree of law enforcement. the last but not the least, i would like to point out that the degree of economic activity coverage with statistics is still low. the monetary policy that we are following is an as much dynamic as visionary process. besides the existence of efficient markets, it also needs to be supplied with new and methodologically accurate statistics. besides our constant efforts and good understanding with instat, we find it necessary to appeal for a greater attention of the whole society and of respective institutions in particular, to increasing statistical information and further consolidating the existing one. it is just the time that all the monitoring, licensing and decision - making institutions, including also the numerous nongovernmental organisations, must feel a great responsibility in this regard. it is just the