The Executive Board of the National Bank of Moldova on March 31 decided to reduce the base rate on the main short-term monetary policy operations from 19% to 17% annually. The annual interest rates on overnight loans will be decreased from 22% to 20%, while on overnight deposits – from 16% to 14%, IPN reports.
According to a press release of the central bank, the Board also decided to maintain the required reserves ratio from financial means attracted in freely convertible currency at the level of 14% of the base, while the reserves ratio from means attracted in Moldovan lei and non-convertible currency – at the level of 35% of the base.
The analysis of the recent macroeconomic indicators shows that the annual rate of inflation continues to decrease even if it remains above the upper limit of the variation interval of ± 1.5 percentage points of the inflation target of 5%. The annual rate of inflation for February 2016 was 10.3%, a decrease of 3.1 percentage points on a month before. The annual growth rate of prices is expected to gradually decrease, including owing to the high comparison base of 2015.
This decision is aimed at anchoring inflation expectations in the context of restoring and maintaining the inflation rate close to the target of 5% in the medium term, with a possible deviation of ± 1.5 percentage points.
The National Bank will continue to offer banks liquidity, according to the schedule announced for 2016, through REPO operations with the term of 14 days, at a fixed rate equal to the base rate of the National Bank plus a margin of 0.25 percentage points.
The next meeting of the Executive Board of the National Bank of Moldova centering on the monetary policy will take place on April 28.
