TIRANA, ALBANIA     Currently, the Bank of Albania processes external sector statistics manually, which leads to an inefficient use of human resources, high operational risk, as well as poor quality of data reporting as compared to its European peers. Furthermore, the lack of standardization of both inputs and outputs leads to problems in data reconciliation with other sources of macroeconomic data that the Bank uses. To address these deficiencies, the Bank is seeking to acquire a modern IT system for the compilation of external sector statistics and has requested USAID’s assistance in defining the technical requirements for the new system.  USAID supported FSVC volunteer expert consult with Bank staff to develop a draft Terms of Reference document that will enable the Bank to procure a suitable IT system that will address current shortcomings. Better external sector statistics, which will feed into the Bank’s macroeconomic models, will enhance the quality of analyses and forecasts.