gent sejko : welcome address - second conference of the museum of the bank of albania welcome address by mr gent sejko, governor of the bank of albania, at the second conference of the museum of the bank of albania, tirana, 20 september 2018. * * * distinguished professors, dear participants, it gives me a great pleasure to welcome you to the second conference of the museum of the bank of albania, via this recorded message. i wish i were present to attend in person the proceedings of the conference, but, regrettably, due to the rather tight agenda i will not be able to. nevertheless, i will have the possibility to read all the presentations, discussions, and input in the conference book that will be compiled subsequent to the conference. as i have already emphasised, the conference of the museum of the bank of albania is one of the most prominent events, providing us with the opportunity to enrich and further the studies on the exposed collections, and serves as a platform for albanian experts to discuss and share their research findings. we are pleased to see that the museum of the bank of albania brings for the second time together representatives from renowned research institutions, such as : the albanian institute of archaeology and history, european universities and central banks to present their studies. as the title suggests, this conference will address the role of money in wartime. in periods of wars and conflicts – history shows that, albeit relatively small, albania has experienced many wars and conflicts – people have turned to the currency and precious metals. hence, about 100 years ago, at the beginning of the world war i, europe dived into one of the worst financial crises of the past century and many people and businesses rushed to convert their bank accounts and assets into cash and gold coins. meanwhile, in albania, these events triggered a chaotic monetary circulation. in the absence of a national currency and due to the political - military and economic developments during the war, diverse foreign currencies circulated across the country, mainly those of european and neighbouring countries, as well as american and turkish ones. you may see this conglomerate of denominations in the showcases of the museum dedicated to the period of independence and the world war i. also, the showcases on the monetary circulation in albania during world war ii, in addition to the ones of antiquity and medieval periods, exhibit denominations that speak of the important and complicated relationships between money and war. i am sure these important moments to the economic and monetary history of albania, and beyond

##demic levels. however, in finland, energy prices increased less than the euro area average during the postpandemic period. even now, with the peak crises ( hopefully ) behind us, producer prices for energy in the euro area are more than 50 % higher than they used to be, while in finland, they have almost returned to pre - pandemic levels. this difference largely stems from finland's better energy mix. here, we were actually quite fortunate for several reasons. first, the consumption of natural gas is extremely low in finland. second, before 2022, we were importing 1015 % of our electricity consumption from russia, but a new, gigantic nuclear power plant started producing similar volumes that we lost from russian imports just when energy prices were peaking. this was indeed lucky, as the construction of the plant had previously been delayed by more than a decade. 3 / 5 bis - central bankers'speeches third, thanks to ambitious policies aiming to bring finnish net emissions to zero by 2035, we've been building a lot of renewable energy in the past couple of years. as a result, the share of renewable energy production in finland is relatively high ( close to 50 % ), and our dependency on energy imports is low by euro area standards ( 41 % in 2022 compared to 68 % in the euro area ). wage increases broadly in line with the euro area more recently, wages have replaced energy as the main driver of inflation in the euro area. growth in overall wages, measured by compensation per employee ( cpe ), has been elevated since 2022, peaking at 5. 2 % in 2023. this was initially driven by wage drift, such as bonus payments and changes in compensation for overtime. since last summer, wage drift has largely receded and negotiated wage growth has become the main driver of overall euro area wage growth, remaining steady at 4. 5 - 4. 7 % until recent months. in finland, negotiated wage growth has broadly aligned with the euro area in recent years. however, compensation per employee, which measures the cost of labor from the employer's perspective, has been slightly lower in finland than in the euro area, reaching 3. 5 % growth in 2023. hence, also service inflation has been lower in finland than in the euro area since late 2021. next, i would like to highlight some conclusions that i find relevant for a small open economy within a monetary union. key focus areas for open economies in a monetary union