and investment. before the pandemic – i need to remind you – we had agreed that the equilibrium real interest rate was zero or even negative. has this changed? what are the fundamental forces that could have produced such a change? personally, i am not convinced at all that the deflationary tendency that we witnessed for a number of several years in the euro area before the pandemic has now turned into an inflationary one. as i mentioned earlier, the inflation surprise that we have recently observed has to do with supply - side shocks. fourth, on the relationship between the growth rate of money supply and inflation : αs we all know, this relationship is not stable ; it has broken down in the past. have you noticed for instance that, despite the very high growth of money supply recently, inflation expectations have stayed anchored at below 2 %? this is extremely important. having said that, i can also tell you that i do not belong to this school of economists that totally ignore money supply. i actually believe that the economy is being governed by aggregate demand and aggregate supply forces and money is part of the aggregate demand forces. however, under certain circumstances, money does not matter, in the sense that it cannot affect economic variables. keynes for instance had talked about the “ liquidity trap ”. in addition, we know from various variations, old or new, of the mundell – fleming model, that there are conditions under which money supply does not matter. so let ’ s not be dogmatic either way. there is no doubt that in the long - term inflation is a monetary phenomenon, but the “ long term ” might actually be too long! fifth, we should not forget that monetary tightening in the eurozone will start in june, with the likely repayments of tltros. finally, i want to reassure you once again that we will do “ whatever it takes ” to safeguard price stability. 2 / 2 bis central bankers'speeches

. recently we have made some concrete steps in this direction. therefore, the banking system is more extended geographically and richer in products. increase of assets, rise in the number of clients, modern infrastructure and other developments have made our contribution to cash reduction in the economy be significant. i believe that the above accomplishments, combined with determined administrative measures, will contribute to the closure of informality gates one by one in the economy. however, i observe unexploited space particularly in terms of : increasing opportunities for more electronic payments ; the last year overturned the ratio in the favour of electronic payments, when their level reached the figure of 320 thousand as compared to the number of 300 thousand of payments effected at the windows. this is an encouraging sign, urging us to better focus on this direction. channelling periodic settlements for utility services through bank accounts ; more concretely aec, alb telecom and water supplying should be related to the banking system so that their services are settled electronically. compulsory transfer of salaries of private sector ’ s employees through the banking system ; the so - far experience with the private sector resulted successful, while even some big private operators are applying this method efficiently. i think that the obligation to transfer salaries through the banking system will significantly decrease the evasion existing on income tax and social insurance contributions. i personally think that it is just the time to enhance popularity for imposing the creation of a banking culture and education. the obligation of each individual for opening a bank account in addition to an important massive service the state does to the population, is more than necessary. more concretely, i propose that new cards be associated with a bank account number. in conclusion, it is understandable that for being successful in the long run, more focus is needed on all the problems i briefly treated above. more loans, more prudence in the supervision, more qualified services, more free prices, less cash in the economy, more banking business, will all lead to more access of the population into your business. i deem that this is an essential prerogative that ensures sustainable long - term development of the albanian economy.