ardian fullani : recent developments in the albanian economy speech by mr ardian fullani, governor of the bank of albania, at the press conference on monetary policy decision of the supervisory council of the bank of albania, tirana, 30 september 2009. * * * the supervisory council of the bank of albania reviewed the monthly report of monetary policy, at its meeting of september 30, 2009. after getting acquainted with the latest economic – financial developments at home and at the conclusion of the discussions on their expected future performance, decided to keep the key interest rate unchanged, at 5. 75 percent. this interest rate is in consistency with the maintaining of inflation close to the bank of albania target for a medium - term period. * * * the analysis of the latest economic and monetary developments confirmed our expectations for an overall downturn of the economic activity at home and a reduction of the domestic inflationary pressures, for a relaxation of monetary markets and a slowing recovery of financial intermediation, and has also highlighted the still fragile equilibrium of the economic and monetary indicators. the conclusions of our discussions converged to a decision - taking to keep the key interest rate unchanged. the purpose of this position is to further maintain and consolidate the established balances, thus considering the macroeconomic stability as an indispensable precondition for a stable and long - term growth. the economic activity at home is backed up by an improvement of the overall global climate, during the last two months, by attempting improvement signs of lending activity and by the seasonal effect of summer time. global economy is being characterised by a more moderated downturn of the economic activity at industrialised countries, accompanied with a growth of the world trading activity and low inflationary pressures at global level. nevertheless statistical data regarding the albanian economy still remain at low level, the indirect indicators suggest this later is characterised by a positive economic growth, but slower compared to the succeeding years. the low pace of both retail sales and budget revenues increase, the exports slowdown, the lower expansion of lending to the economy and business and consumer ’ s confidence indexes show that albanian economy is going through a slower growth phase relative to the one of previous year. this situation is also mirrored on the low inflationary pressures, revealed by the low level of core inflation, which is a proper appraiser of the domestic demand pressures. in august 2009, annual inflation pointed to 2. 2 percent, remaining within the targeted band of the bank of albania, but close to its lower limit

narayana kocherlakota : monetary policy report to the minnesota business partnership speech by mr narayana kocherlakota, president of the federal reserve bank of minneapolis, at minnesota business partnership, minneapolis, minnesota, 8 july 2014. * * * thanks to manuel amador, david fettig, terry fitzgerald and sam schulhofer - wohl for their assistance with these remarks and the supporting materials. thanks for the introduction, and thank you for the invitation to join you here today. it ’ s a pleasure to speak to the partnership again. i ’ ll begin my speech with some basics about the federal reserve system and the federal open market committee ( the fomc ). but the bulk of my remarks should be viewed as a quarterly report of sorts. your elected representatives, the congress of the united states, have charged the federal reserve with achieving key macroeconomic goals. my speech will be a report to you, the minnesota business partnership, about how the fomc is doing in terms of achieving those goals. please keep in mind, though, that i will be expressing my own views, and they are not necessarily those of others in the federal reserve system. i look forward to responding to, and learning from, your questions at the conclusion of my remarks. federal reserve system basics let me begin with some basics about the federal reserve system. i like to tell people that the fed is a uniquely american institution. what do i mean by that? well, relative to its counterparts around the world, the u. s. central bank is highly decentralized. the federal reserve bank of minneapolis is one of 12 regional reserve banks that, along with the board of governors in washington, d. c., make up the federal reserve system. our bank represents the ninth of the 12 federal reserve districts and includes montana, the dakotas, minnesota, northwestern wisconsin and the upper peninsula of michigan. eight times per year, the fomc meets to set the path of interest rates over the next six to seven weeks. all 12 presidents of the various regional federal reserve banks – including me – and the seven governors of the federal reserve board contribute to these deliberations. however, the committee itself consists only of the governors, the president of the federal reserve bank of new york and a rotating group of four other presidents. i ’ m one of those four presidents this year. in this way, the structure of the fomc mirrors the federalist structure of our government, because