will continue to be substantial, even though the euro area economy has been growing strongly and labor markets have remained extremely tight. some countries recently announced an extension of 2022 fiscal packages and / or additional support measures for 2023. while such policies can buffer the impact of negative supply shocks for instance on our citizens ’ purchasing power, they sustain upside risk to inflation. on policy i would like to emphasize that the broadening and deepening of our inflation problem generates the need to act forcefully. a swift normalization of interest rates is an essential first phase, and some front - loading should not be excluded. there is, however, inherent uncertainty surrounding the neutral rate as well as on the question whether going to neutral will be sufficient to bring inflation back to target. this implies that the path and end point for the policy rate remain uncertain. it would probably serve us well to simply continue raising our policy rates until the inflation outlook becomes consistent again with our symmetric 2 % target over the medium - term. as model outcomes inherently lack robustness in the aftermath of such unprecedented shocks, we need to give more weight to actual underlying inflation dynamics in our monetary policy decisions. that also implies that we will continue to take our decisions on a meeting - by - meeting basis. beyond policy rate increases, the relatively flat yield curve shows that the size of the central bank ’ s balance sheet is and should become an important element of the normalization process as well, and i expect the issue of app - reinvestments to feature more prominently in our discussions at a later point in the year. thank you.

it to be less fragmented or concentrated in certain sectors of the economy. also, we are closely monitoring the financial and borrowing situation of micro - economic firms, including those in the agricultural sector. these firms have a considerable share in the gross value added and in the number of employed persons in albania. our recent surveys show that the primary concerns of smaller firms are : unfair competition ; difficulties in finding markets to sell the products ; and, to a lesser extent, limited access in financing or the cost of providing banking products and services. 1 / 3 bis central bankers'speeches we are aware that the growth of productivity, in particular for smaller firms, is very important for the economic convergence of albania. the fulfilment of needs for investing capital is a main challenge for small producers, as they have less or no borrowing history in the financial system. for this reason, the analysis with micro data are already subject of discussion in the activities and conferences organised by the bank of albania, to understand the needs of small firms and how we can help to improve the infrastructure, aiming to increase their financial inclusion in the future. productivity is important as it determines the convergence speed towards the advanced economies. so far, the productivity convergence of our countries with advanced countries is guided mostly by a re - allocation of resources from state - owned firms to private firms. nevertheless, this process has not succeeded to move further forward to the development of innovative products. unless these trends change, the albanian and regional firms will likely lose competitiveness against their eu partners. overall, it means that the economic convergence and the equality of income with eu countries will be considerably delayed. in a more specific aspect, the european integration processes will slowdown, as far as our firms will not be able to withstand the competitiveness pressures. for this reason, i think that the regional and albanian authorities should continue with the implementation of structural reforms, which aim to : increase the formalisation level of the economy, as a tool for raising competitiveness, for promoting consolidation, for improving the governance of firms, and for lowering their financing costs ; promote the development of firms in fields where the region and albania provide competitive advantages, such as tourism or the agro - industry, and in those fields that have high value added, such as the information technology or the financial services. development capital markets, as a tool to support new and innovative firms and as a partner to share the financial risk of entrepreneurs in the stage of the expansion and development. dear participants, let me