ardian fullani : overview of albania ’ s latest economic and financial developments speech by mr ardian fullani, governor of the bank of albania, on the monetary policy decision - making of the bank of albania ’ s supervisory council, tirana, 27 march 2013. * * * today, on 27 march 2013, the supervisory council of the bank of albania reviewed and approved the monthly monetary policy report. based on the most recent monetary and economic developments in albania, and following the discussions on their outlook, the supervisory council of the bank of albania decided to keep the key interest rate unchanged, at 3. 75 %. the council notes that there are appropriate monetary conditions to ensure the achievement of the inflation target in the medium - term period, providing, at the same time, the required monetary stimulus to boost economic activity. let me now proceed with an overview of the economic developments and key issues discussed at today ’ s meeting. * * * annual inflation was 2. 5 % in february, down by 0. 2 percentage points from january. the lower inflation was primarily driven by the falling oil price, due to the base effect of the environmental tax rise in 2012 and the falling global prices. overall, inflation continues to be determined by the rise in food prices. their inflation accounted for about 90 % of february ’ s headline inflation. other basket prices have generally been stable and making low contribution to headline inflation. in the macroeconomic aspect, the general economic and monetary conditions have contributed to keeping inflation low. aggregate demand, in particular, remains sluggish and insufficient to generate full utilisation of production capacities, hence exerting no pressures on producer prices, profit margins and, consequently, the final prices of goods and services. as we have constantly pointed out, below - potential economic growth is and will remain a key factor driving the low inflation. in parallel, global prices, liquidity situation in the albanian economy and financial markets, and economic agents ’ inflation expectations have not and are not expected to generate strong inflation pressures in the medium - term period. indirect information on the performance of the albanian economic activity in the last quarter of 2012 suggests sluggish growth. aggregate demand was primarily driven by the higher exports, while the private domestic demand provided positive, albeit low, contribution. on the other hand, public sector expenditure shrank, hence making a negative contribution to the growth of aggregate demand. there is scarce information on economic developments during the first quarter of 2013. however, the analysis of available indirect data

responding to leaps in payments : from unbundling to stablecoins christina segal - knowles1 executive director financial market infrastructure directorate westminster business forum thursday 22 january 2020 i would like to thank holly snaith, michaela costello, rachel james and josh sadler for their assistance with preparing this speech. all speeches are available online at www. bankofengland. co. uk / news / speeches good morning. i would like to thank the westminster business forum for inviting me to speak at today ’ s seminar on ‘ payments policy and regulation - infrastructure, innovation and end - user priorities ’. i ’ d like to start today by telling two short ( and seemingly unrelated ) stories. the first is the story of perhaps the first giant leap forward in payments – the introduction of paper money. paper money was invented in china as early as the tenth century. merchants seeking to avoid carrying around heavy iron coins began issuing ious written on mulberry bark. the state eventually took over – outlawing private ious and banning counterfeit – and the first state - backed currency was born. when marco polo arrived in the mid thirteenth century, he was so amazed by this invention that he devoted an entire chapter of the marvels of the world to kublai khan ’ s tree bark money. but, the first big leap forward in payments ultimately ended in a leap backwards. by the mid - fifteenth century, china had eliminated paper money entirely. the state had issued too much money and counterfeit was rife. ultimately, mismanagement of the new invention resulted in what was perhaps the world ’ s first hyperinflation. china didn ’ t adopt paper money again for several hundred years. although paper money eventually made a comeback, it took generations. the second story i would like to tell is a bit more mundane : the story of my breakfast. on the way to this conference, i stopped to get a coffee and paid for it by tapping my phone against an ipad. of the other people in line in the busy coffee shop, not a single one paid in cash – everyone was tapping cards or phones. the story of my breakfast won ’ t be a surprise to most of you – indeed card payments have become the norm in many parts of the uk. the proportion of uk payments made with cash has fallen from 60 % in 2008 to 28 % just ten years later. this of course has implications for financial inclusion, which i won ’ t cover today as i don ’ t have time to