Debt, Fullani changes position

01/08/2013 15:15

By the end of April, the official data showed that the budget indicators
had went out of control and increased with two times compared to one
year ago, and the government was taking massive debts in the internal
market.

Now that the International Monetary Fund has left, the only institution that can protect the public finance from the elections’ danger was Bank of Albania.

This is what Governor Ardian Fullani declared one month before the elections: “The Bank of Albani notes that the mid-term and long-term fiscal policy must be oriented towards the preservation of the public debt stability”.

The indicators got even worse in May, but for the governor, who had just taken the second 7-year-long mandate by the center right majority, the concern for the debt was not emergent, but it remained long-termed.

Only yesterday the Bank changed its position in a radical way, forgetting the mid-term policy terminology and looking now for emergent measures about the debt.

“For this reason, Bank of Albania suggests that taking immediate measures for controlling this debt would be an important contribution for reducing the insecurities and of risk primes in economy”, Fullani declared.

Less then two months have passed after the first declaration, and the official data show that the public finances did not untangle just in June, but it had happened much earlier.

The only doubt during this time was the power rotation, with the incumbent government losing the elections.

Bank of Albania is the most financially independent institution in Albania, to the point of extreme. Its employees have a closed payment structure, independent from the budget.

But not only that. The Bank itself is allowed to procure public money without any competition, but by using special procedures that do not have to obey to the procurement law.

These privileges have been given with a strong persisntance from the International Monetary Fund and other international institutions just for one reason: to protect the financial stability of the country from any threat, including the ones coming from politics and the governments’ electoral appetites.

The question raised after the last declaration is who has threatened the public finances in only one month, and what government has obliged the governor to change position so quickly?

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