The NBM postponed the monetary policy meeting scheduled for February 8 indefinitely and launched an investigation into the leakage of insider information about possible solutions.
In particular, the National Bank of Moldova (NBM) said on Tuesday that it took into account the information that appeared in the public space about a possible decision on monetary policy and launched an investigation to establish the circumstances under which one of the simulated scenarios became the subject of speculation. In this context, the NBM stated that its decisions are taken independently. “Thus, the meeting scheduled for today on the decision on monetary policy is postponed to another date, which will be announced in the near future,” the National Bank said in a statement. It should be noted that on the eve, an MP from the ruling PAS party, deputy chairman of the commission on economy, budget and finance, Radu Marian wrote on social networks that he got the information that the NBM plans to raise the rate applied to the main short-term operations of monetary policy, by another 2 percentage points, calling such a decision wrong, undermining investment activity and business. Radu Marian said that, in his opinion, the NBM should focus on consumer loans, which overheat the economy, speed up decision-making on consumer loans, but should not interfere with the lending activities of economic agents, increasing the cost of loans. It should be noted that at its extraordinary meeting on January 13 this year. The National Bank raised the base rate applied to the main short-term monetary policy operations by 2 percentage points at once - from 6.5% to 8.5% per annum. The NBM, by its decision, increased also by 2 p.p. interest rates on overnight loans and deposits - from 8.5% to 10.5% and, accordingly, from 4.5% to 6.5% per annum. The required reserve ratio from funds attracted in Moldovan lei (MDL) and non-convertible currency was increased, starting from the period of applying the required reserves on February 16 - March 15, 2022, by 2 percentage points, and was set at 28% of the calculation base. The required reserve ratio from funds raised in freely convertible currency remained unchanged. It was noted that the configuration of monetary policy is aimed at reducing inflationary pressure in order to reduce the impact of shocks on the economy for its fastest recovery. These measures are resorted to by central banks, which, against the backdrop of rising inflation at the global level, are revising their forecasts in terms of growth for the next quarters. It was emphasized that the increase in recent inflation indicates the vulnerability of the internal inflationary process to external events, explains the increase in inflation of the recent period, which is mainly due to supply shocks in terms of growth in international and regional prices for food, energy and other raw materials, with consequences on import prices. At the same time, pressures on inflation are emerging from rising incomes and consumer lending, which supported the increase in sub-components of core inflation, as well as food prices. In this context, newly issued loans in national currency continued to grow and in December 2021, almost reaching the historical maximum; their volume increased by 46.7% in annual terms. Thus, the increase in the base rate, combined with the increase in required reserves, is aimed at reducing the growth rate of consumer loans, which currently have a strong pro-inflationary effect and put pressure on the current account of the payment, trade balance and exchange as well. It should be noted that before that, the NBM changed the base refinancing rate for the last time on December 3, 2021, when, taking into account inflationary expectations, it decided to increase the base rate applied to the main short-term monetary policy operations by 1 percentage point - from 5.5% to 6.5% per annum. Then, interest rates on loans and overnight deposits were increased by 1 percentage point - from 7.5% to 8.5% and, accordingly, from 3.5% to 4.5% per annum. // 08.02.2022 – InfoMarket
