ideas and conclusions in relation to the further recovery of the economic activity. the support of the bank of albania will be unconditional in this regard. as in the past, we will be constantly in search to adopt strategies and rules that aim at having a financially sound banking sector capable of supporting economic development in albania. i am fully confident that the future cooperation among all the stakeholders : the banking industry, the government and the banking will be strengthened, for the economic and financial prosperity of the country. i thank you for your attention and i wish the conference all success! 3 / 3 bis central bankers'speeches

gent sejko : overview of economic and financial developments in albania address by mr gent sejko, governor of the bank of albania, at the 2nd conference of the albanian association of banks, tirana, 14 november 2017. * * * your excellency prime minister, honourable minister ahmetaj, dear chairman of the albanian association of banks, ladies and gentlemen, it is a special pleasure for me to participate in the second conference organised by the albanian association of banks ( aab ). i take this opportunity to compliment the aab for the selected theme, as economic growth in albania is cross - cutting topic of interest to all of us. this conference takes place at an interesting moment from the perspective of the performance of economic activity in albania. the most recent assessments show that our economy has entered into a long - term recovery trajectory. as mentioned in the last statement of the supervisory council of the bank of albania, the albanian economy grew 4. 1 % in the second quarter, driven mainly by the recovery of private domestic demand, improvement of the international trade balance, and increase in public spending and high foreign direct investments during this period. the accommodative monetary policy of the bank of albania has been one of the key driving factors for the recovery of domestic demand. it has constantly guaranteed a financial environment with low interest rates and ample liquidity. it has also been aided by the consolidatory fiscal policy, which, in addition to reducing risk premia, has increased the space for financing the private sector. our expectations for the short and medium - term economic developments in albania remain positive. we aim at having sustainable growth rates in the course of the years. in this context, the banking sector represents a key industry for supporting economic recovery. the instruments it avails have a substantial contribution in this regard, with lending being among the most important ones. notwithstanding occasional volatilities, the banking industry has played a significant role in supporting economic activity. that was notably the case at the early 2000s, following the privatisation of the then savings bank. during that period, the outstanding credit increased at considerable annual growth rates. anyhow, such high growth rates and the outburst of the global crisis revealed a number of inconveniences, and led to the perpetual increase in the level of non - performing loans. thus, the ratio of non - performing loans to total loans peaked 25 %, extremely deteriorating the system's lending capacities. the reasons that led up