by lek 69. 3 billion, compared to the growth by lek 52 billion over the previous year. in 2006 the annual credit growth was 56. 7 percent, providing good support for economic needs. the relatively high pace of banking system lending to the economy has also continued over the first quarter of the current year, drawing our attention, as the regulatory authority of the banking activity, to the need to monitor any risks this expansion may comprise. more concretely, this growth has led to decrease of capital adequacy rate and liquidity ; however, banks have continued to be well - capitalised, liquid and profitable. quarterly stress - tests carried out by us have indicated that the country ’ s banking system is flexible against any probable shocks relating to exchange rate, interest rates or credit quality. the bank of albania has continued to prudentially monitor the rapid credit growth, enhancing its banking supervision. in this framework, the establishment of the credit registry, expected to be carried out within december 2007 is of special importance. currently, we are working for completing the legal framework that will enable the registry establishment and functioning. at the same time, the decision is already made on selecting the company that will provide technical solutions to the registry. we are confident that all these measures will contribute to the maintaining of credit quality and the financial stability of our country. wishing you a fruitful workshop, i give the floor to mr. watson. thank you!

public ﬁnances on a sound footing while times were good, and is also currently proving that it can be a ﬂexible tool during crises, providing [UNK] ﬁscal leeway. in recent years, some economists have changed their perspective on the debt brake. given the low level of interest rates and the foreseeable need for high investments, greater scope for borrowing will be required. i do not share the harsh criticism directed at the debt brake by some. it is not an impediment to forward - looking investment and a modern state. when it comes to structural government expenditure, which corresponds to roughly half of economic output and which reaches record levels in the budget plans calculated excluding interest expenditure, this appears, to me, to be rather a question of setting priorities. this does not mean that any adjustment to the ﬁscal rules should be rejected fundamentally. yet measures should remain in place to reliably guard against high levels of government debt. i would advise against either relying on interest rates remaining low indeﬁnitely or overestimating the growth effects of government actions. experience has shown that we often end up being disappointed when we have such expectations. of course, it is important not to scale back government support measures too quickly now. in view of the persistent uncertainty regarding the evolution of the pandemic and its economic impact, it is appropriate to take a cautious approach. the coronavirus crisis should not serve as a pretext to jettison, once and for all, ﬁscal rules that some dislike. although accommodative budgetary policy with high deﬁcits may be popular in the short term, a return to stable public ﬁnances should not be continuously put off. this is also important from a monetary policy perspective : monetary and ﬁscal policy are currently working in concert. though i believe this will not remain the case. tensions are likely to resurface when the pandemic - driven crisis has been overcome. monetary policy is committed to the objective of price stability in the euro area and its reins will have to be tightened again if required by the inﬂation outlook. it must be clear to all that we are not putting monetary policy into the service of ﬁscal policy. it is essential to keep ﬁscal assistance measures targeted and temporary to reduce the likelihood of conﬂicts arising between monetary and ﬁscal policy. matters would become particularly critical if the foreseeable demographic burdens on public ﬁnan