overall economic climate, impacting on the improvement of the global economic activity, reduction of risk premiums and stability of global financial markets. however, the global economy and the european one continue to reflect economic vulnerabilities, which are transmitted to low inflationary pressures. this situation conditions also the pursuit of a stimulating monetary and fiscal policy by keeping interest rates at the historical low and by high liquidity injections. back to the domestic economy, we should state that the new economic data were insufficient during october. performance of inflation and of monetary and fiscal indicators, external trade data and consumer and business indices confirm that the albanian economy continues to record positive growth rates. this growth is sustained by maintaining steady levels of the consumer demand and fiscal stimulus given during 2009. however, available data from the economy speak for an economic activity slowdown during the current year. foreign demand for albanian products has decreased, being illustrated by export slowdown along this period, while investments have declined. the steady trend of core inflation and low non - traded inflation rate also indicate the presence of low aggregate demand - induced inflationary pressures in the country ’ s economy during january – october 2009. this performance has contributed to absorption of shocks generated from traded inflation, due to weakening of national currency ’ s position in the domestic foreign - exchange market. inflation during 2009 has fluctuated around the lower limit of the bank of albania ’ s target. headline inflation in october was 2. 3 percent, recording a slight rise in comparison to september, but resting below the record of the previous year. average annual inflation recorded 2. 1 percent, resting at the same level with that of september. parallel to demand factors, inflation performance is influenced even from the development of several supply factors, such as slight downward trend in the labour cost per unit, reduced import and producer prices, statistical effect of administered prices, thus creating an overall environment with reduced inflationary pressures. fiscal policy during the third quarter of 2009 has revealed signs of mitigating its expansionary nature. revenues have recorded a slight rise related to the previous months, while there is noticed a reduction in realised expenditure pace. in annual terms, during the first nine months of the year the budget revenues have recorded a growth of 6 percent, whereas the budget spending has increased by 22 percent. the budget deficit remains at comparably high historical levels, but within the budget limits reviewed lately. to a great extent, this deficit reflects the high level of public capital expenditures during 2009. public expenditures and fiscal policy

. this is a child & youth finance international ( cyfi ) initiative, with the support of the organisation for economic co - operation and development ( oecd ), and over 53 thousand institutions and organisations and over 32 million children and young people participate in this year ’ s edition. the slogan for this year is ‘ learn. save. earn. ’ around this slogan, partner institutions organise awareness - raising and educational activities. as active participants in the money week activities, we have chosen to focus on educating the young people and encouraging them not to use the 1 / 2 bis central bankers'speeches outdated terms “ new lek ” – “ old lek ” in our day - to - day financial interactions. our slogan for this year is “ too young to speak in old lek ” this is the overarching theme for most of our contest categories. i take this opportunity to thank, on behalf of the bank of albania, all the participants and i exhort them to be an active part in the efforts for eliminating such outdated terminology. the bank of albania, with long - standing support from the albanian association of banks, and the precious support from the ministry of education, sports and youth, will organise a series of awareness - raising activities for children and young people on such topics. thus, during the week, a number of activities will be organised such as lectures, contests, visits to commercial banks and the museum of the bank of albania, aimed at involving as many students as possible. in all educational activities of the bank of albania, including these contests, we appreciate and encourage inspiration, originality and proactive thinking. the submitted projects for all the categories, whose winners are present today, feature all these elements. i take this opportunity to personally congratulate all of them for their qualitative works presented during the submission phase. their work and engagement are a source of constant inspiration for the bank of albania to introduce increasingly ambitious projects. the projects category targeted sixth graders, the photomontage category targeted ninth graders and the videos category targeted high - school students. the participation rate was very high, with around 340 students from 40 schools. i would like to extend my special thanks to the teachers and professors, whose commitment and passion is a key and necessary element for the realisation of these educational projects. lastly, i would like to thank you all for the insofar commitment, and invite all the participating institutions to continue the cooperation in the future, with a view to advancing our financial