TIRANA, March 20 /ATA/ The governor of the Bank of Albania, Gent Sejko, said that the decision-making of the monetary policy of the Bank of Albania will continue to be based on the data of some economic indicators.
Asked today by journalists during the media conference, when easing of monetary policy is expected to begin, taking into account the fact that inflation during February reached 2.6%, a level that is below the Bank of Albania’s target of 3%, Sejko said that, ” the Bank of Albania, depending on the data on inflation, will respond through its monetary policy stance.”
According to him, the average rate of inflation during the first two months of 2024 was at the level of 3.4% in January and 2.6% in February. But if inflation continues to fall, there are other implications.
“If we refer to previous periods, the situation is completely different; however, a situation with high inflation as well as a situation with low inflation would be problematic as we have seen in the last decade. But we don’t foresee that situation. The forecast is to be around our inflation target during the current year. At the moment we do not anticipate or think we will start easing the monetary policy; always depending on the numbers,” said Sejko.
As I pointed out, the Governor continued, the latest inflation figures are beyond expectations, they are better than we anticipated. If we have lower inflation figures, of course we will respond.
Sejko emphasizes that another element is the fact that many central banks of the eurozone countries, but also in the world, e.g. the European Central Bank has given signals that, in the not-too-distant future, if we continue to have these low inflation rates, it may start lowering the interest rate, i.e. the normalization of monetary policy.
“The stance of monetary policy will depend on inflation and other macroeconomic parameters in the country such as GDP, employment, etc.,” he said.
/sm/
