Central bank says Albania's economic, monetary policies stable in 2015

Albania's economic development and monetary policies have been stable during 2015, Albanian Daily News cited governor of the Bank of Albania as saying on Wednesday.

Price stability has been maintained last year, while economic growth is expected to be 2.7 percent, said Gent Sejko.

He said the central bank will consider cutting the basic interest rates to stimulate the economy.

Sejko said that the central bank strengthened the supervisory structure in 2015, and indicators of bad loans and the profitability of the banking system have been improved.

"The banking system was liquid, stable and resisted the effects of the Greek crisis," he said.

Meanwhile, restructuring of bad loans of about 30 major companies has already started, he said.

There are about 90 million euros (about 102 million U.S. dollars), for which banks have agreed to conclude new agreements with debtors, said the governor, adding a new law on bankruptcy needs to be adopted as soon as possible.

"For those cases, which really have no positive perspective, the adoption of the bankruptcy law will be another qualitative step that will help the whole process, mainly banks and financial system," he said.

The level of nonperforming loans fell to 18 percent in 2015, but risks still remain, he said, adding that although the situation is not alarming, the bankruptcy of one of the big companies would increase the level of bad loans by 1 percent. Endi