2008 is leaving and a new year is coming now. like the majority of various world economies, even our country is in front of many uncertainties. i would not like to overlook the domestic factors, but however, what is currently considered as the hottest issue, has to do with the overall global environment. for a long time from now, various agencies, and national and international institutions have forecasted a year of world contracted overall production. it would be utopian, and to a certain extent a lack of prudence, if we think that our economy would be slightly or not at all affected by global crisis. though albania is a small economy, it is open, with numerous relations for exchanging goods and financial funds. i have emphasized in my public presentations that all the actors should be prepared for harder days. in light of this i would like to notify you of a number of statements, findings or actions that we ( i mean the bank of albania and the banking system ) are going to carry out in the coming months. 1. based on the latest analysis of the country ’ s economic and financial developments and on inflation forecasts for two forthcoming years, i would like to emphasise that there is a good anchoring of inflationary expectations around the bank of albania ’ s 3 percent target. latest developments and information suggest that risks balance to future inflation is shifted to downward trend, creating space for manoeuvring in the near future. 2. based on recent empirical studies of the bank of albania, it comes out that the relation of credit to economy with the country ’ s economic growth is positive and relatively strong. so, the credit growth leads to maintaining current paces of the country ’ s economic activity. in the recent years credit to economy has eclipsed the contribution of the public sector to generating and using financial funds, also based on a long process of the country ’ s fiscal consolidation. this process of more effective usage of funds impacts on increasing the efficiency and the economic growth. a contraction of credit to economy carries over the risk of reverse action, of eclipsing the credit to economy contribution from the public sector ’ s spending. in this sense, being aware of all the difficulties ahead, i would insist once more on my request to you to continue to keep credit to economy paces. 3. further to my previous requests, i would once again require from you to be more active in the money market, in the interbank market and in securities market. the bank of albania has repeated

economy day 2019 volksbanken raiffeisenbanken – frankfurt, 14 november the future of the european economic and monetary union speech by francois villeroy de galhau, governor of the banque de france press contact : mark deen ( mark. deen @ banque - france. fr ; 06 88 56 54 03 ). page 1 sur 7 ladies and gentlemen, i am very pleased to be here with you and wish to thank you for your invitation. it ’ s almost like a home from home for me here : i visit frankfurt at least twice a month for ecb governing council meetings! i should add that i myself worked as a retail banker for 12 years. today i am also speaking to you as a committed european and a friend of germany. i am french but my family roots are in saarland. my family has lived there since the end of the 18th century and its ceramics company, villeroy & boch, is part of the german “ mittelstand ”. i love germany, its language and its culture. the impressive number of participants in today ’ s event is testament to the vitality of the volksbanken raiffeisenbanken. through their ideas, friedrich wilhelm raiffeisen and hermann schulze - delitzsch [ founder of the volksbanken ] influenced many cooperative banking initiatives in europe and throughout the world. the cooperative model has proved its resilience, first and foremost because it inspires confidence over the long term. these two core values of confidence and stability are also what characterise our single currency, the euro. this year it celebrated its 20th birthday. however, to optimise its benefits objectively, we need to overcome four cliches. i shall then turn to your banking industry and its three key challenges for tomorrow. * * i. overcoming four cliches in order to optimise the euro area. i am fully aware of the criticisms and debates that exist here in germany about the functioning of the euro area. not everything is perfect ; but germany can be proud of having helped to create an internationally recognised currency inspired by its own core values : independence, respect for treaties, price stability and a long - term approach. the ecb and the euro are the true descendants of the bundesbank and deutsche mark. but today, if we want to move forward with a serene debate, we need to get rid of four cliches. page 2 sur 7 the first one that