TIRANA, March 29 (Xinhua) -- Albania's central bank on Thursday informed it decided to keep the benchmark rate unchanged at the historical low of 1.25 percent.

The last time that central bank changed its monetary policy rate was in May 2016, cutting it down from 1.5 percent to 1.25 percent.

Governor of Bank of Albania Gent Sejko told reporters here at a press conference that new economic and financial information analyzed in the intermediate monetary policy report was in line with expectations.

Sejko highlighted that Albanian economy was expected to grow further in the medium-term while he noted that improvement of the cyclical position, reflected in an increasingly fuller utilization of production capacities, was expected to add domestic inflationary pressures and enable the return of inflation to target during 2019.

The central bank believes the monetary policy stance remains adequate for boosting economic growth and for the sustainable return of inflation to the 3 percent target.

He added that the gradual return of the economy to its potential and the fuller utilization of production capacities would be accompanied by faster increase in wages and production costs, hence strengthening domestic inflationary pressures.