as per the requirements of the application, was necessary. i would like to take a moment to thank all the institutions involved in the process for their utmost engagement dedicated to this work, particularly the ministry of finances. the bank of albania compiled an action plan, coordinated and cooperated with all the national 1 / 5 bis - central bankers'speeches institutions involved in the process, while established bridges of communication with the european payments council and the european commission, in order to address every arising during the process. the entire application process was conducted through the valuable assistance of the world bank. allow me to stress out that within less than 5 months, a voluminous and detailed material was compiled, and all the stages of preliminary consultations with the european payments council and the european commission were successfully completed thanks to this coordination and cooperation. the criteria set forth by the european payments council for countries that apply to participate in sepa are concentrated in two aspects. first, the applicant should demonstrate strong economic links with the european union, and second, it should demonstrate the alignment of its legislation with that of the european unions in the area of payments, but not exclusively. the latter has the largest volume in the application. in the area of payments, albania demonstrates a high legal compliance with the acquis and the regulatory framework of sepa. since 2018, albania has accelerated its efforts in this regard, through the drafting by the bank of albania and the approval of the law " on payment services " and the regulatory framework for the implementation thereof. this law transposes the eu directive on payment services, known as psd2. the approval of this law ensures that competition, transparency and consumer protection are maintained during the provision of payment services, following the standards of the european union. in order to fully align the regulatory framework of payments with the sepa criteria, in march and april, the bank of albania prepared and approved a new regulation, which transposes the sepa regulation. alongside laying down certain harmonised standards, this regulation gives the banking system the necessary time to prepare its infrastructure to adapt to the sepa schemes. another aspect of legal compliance is related to the supervisory practices of the banking system and the regulatory requirements on capital, which were for the most part congruent to the eu legislation on the context of sepa. a delicate point in the application is the legal compliance as regards the measures adopted for preventing money laundering and countering of terrorist financing. the delisting of albania from the " grey "

. what will be the overall state of the economy? 1 / 3 bis central bankers'speeches this year economic growth will accelerate to 3. 5 %, up from 3. 3 % in 2019, and will reach around 4 % in the following years. the monetary policy easing will contribute to the faster economic growth. high private consumption and investment will remain the main economic growth drivers. at the same time, the contribution of net exports to gdp will remain negative on the back of the real sector ’ s considerable need for investment imports. real household income will grow at a fast pace, which will further narrow the wage gap with neighboring countries and thus make ukrainians more interested in working in ukraine rather than abroad. the 2020 – 2022 current account deficit will remain acceptable the deficit narrowed to 0. 7 % of gdp in 2019. an important factor behind the decrease in the deficit was the compensation received by naftogaz of ukraine from russian gazprom under a ruling of the stockholm arbitration court. however, apart from that, the current account deficit shrank due to the decreased trade deficit in goods, steady growth in services exports, and smaller amounts of repatriated dividends. the current account deficit will range from 3 % to 4 % in 2020 – 2022. in particular, the wider deficit will be caused by large volumes of investment imports and decreased proceeds from natural gas transit. however, this will be offset by greater capital inflows to the private sector amid an improvement in the investment climate. what does the implementation of the forecast depend on? further cooperation with the international monetary fund remains the basic assumption of the macroeconomic forecast. the nbu expects that a new cooperation program with the imf will be signed in the coming months, after the ukrainian parliament approves the required draft laws. the new cooperation program, official borrowing and nonresidents ’ sustained interest in domestic treasury bonds and bills will sustain the rise in international reserves every year, despite ukraine going through a period of peak external public debt payments. international reserves will exceed usd 29 billion in 2020, and will continue to rise in the coming years. in this light, the nbu believes any delay in entering into a new cooperation agreement with the imf to be the key risk to its forecasts. risks to macrofinancial stability also persist. these risks could mainly arise from ukrainian court rulings on the responsibility and liability of the former owners of insolvent banks to the state. if materialized, these risks could