jean - claude trichet : interview in frankfurter allgemeine zeitung ( faz ) interview with mr jean - claude trichet, president of the european central bank, in frankfurter allgemeine zeitung, germany, conducted by messrs gerald braunberger and stefan ruhkamp on 19 may 2010 and published on 21 may 2010. * * * faz : mr president, many germans are asking themselves whether our money is still safe. what do you have to say to them? trichet : the european central bank has a track record of successfully meeting its objective of keeping inflation below, but close to, 2 % over the medium term. for over 11 years since its establishment – including the current period – the ecb has succeeded in doing just that. over this entire period, we have achieved an average annual inflation rate of less than 2 %, but close to 2 %, in the euro area. and in germany it is even significantly lower. the facts speak for themselves. no central bank in europe – not even the deutsche bundesbank – has achieved such a low rate of inflation over such a long period of time. faz : but the fear is that the ecb is getting itself into a situation where it no longer has complete freedom to act. trichet : we have full freedom to act, and we will never shy away from our responsibility for delivering medium - term price stability, also in difficult circumstances. in france i was at times called the “ ayatollah of franc fort ” ( a play on words on “ strong franc ” ) or a “ clone ” of the president of the deutsche bundesbank at the time, hans tietmeyer. in 2004 the german and french governments tried to pressure us into cutting interest rates. i said on behalf of the governing council that the ecb refused to do this. in december 2005 we increased rates against the publicly expressed sentiment of ten governments! in 2008 we did not hesitate to raise interest rates, even in a period of financial turbulence. we don ’ t allow ourselves to be influenced by any government, any social partner or any kind of pressure group. we act always fully in line with our own responsibilities. and that is the reason why we have delivered price stability. faz : but by purchasing government bonds, you ’ ve crossed a red line. has the credibility of the ecb suffered as a result? trichet : there has been no crossing of any line. our line

gent sejko : the need to reinforce understanding of economic developments and their relation to policy welcome remarks by mr gent sejko, governor of the bank of albania, at the 12th see economic research workshop, tirana, 6 december 2018. * * * ladies and gentlemen! it is a great pleasure for me to welcome all of you today to our 12th research workshop. i would like to express my sincere gratitude to our guests from academia and central banks who for 12 years have made this workshop one of the best and well - recognized economic and financial research events in albania and in the region. let me also thank all of our distinguished chairs, speakers and discussants for their engagement here today. the papers that will be presented and discussed during these 2 days will cover a wide range of economic and financial issues that concern central banks. the topics on monetary policy, financial stability, risk and novel methodologies are all very relevant to the daily activity of central banks and as such are very important to us. the bank of albania is involved in decision - making on all these issues and we provide our active support to it through our research. along with the papers that are going to be presented today in the panels, we have also decided to include and present in the poster presentations, tomorrow, some of our ongoing projects. following this workshop, the results of these research works will feed into the decision making process and help the bank of albania to make more informed decisions and improve its models and the efficiency of policy - making. for this reason, i encourage and invite you all to ask questions, to comment and to assess our work with your opinions and academic proficiency, to challenge our findings and methodologies. the nature of our research is undoubtedly influenced by our main mission and prevailing concerns. it is for that reason that the majority of our research focuses on monetary policy, price and financial stability, models related to them and the economic events that affect them the most. some of the trends that we will discuss today are global and fundamental in nature. they may not have reached our economies, yet, but they will definitely have a significant impact on our real economy and financial system in the future. for example, new technologies, such as crypto currencies, artificial intelligence and machine learning, which represent a major challenge, not only for central banks, will have various implications for monetary and financial stability. research related to these new technologies will be beneficial for both advanced and developing countries. unexpected, sometimes new, global or