The Moldovan government expects inflation in the country to return to the target range by 2024.
This is stated in a letter sent by the leadership of the government and the National Bank of Moldova to the Managing Director of the International Monetary Fund Kristalina Georgieva along with an updated version of the memorandum of Moldova with the IMF. “We believe that external factors, including energy and food shocks, are the key drivers of inflation, and we expect inflation to return to the target range by 2024,” said the letter, which was signed by Prime Minister Natalia Gavrilita, Vice Prime Minister of Infrastructure and Regional Development Andrei Spinu, President of the National Bank Octavian Armasu, Finance Minister Dumitru Budianschi and Economy Minister Sergiu Gaibu. The document says that the annual inflation in the country has been growing steadily, reaching 33.5% in July 2022, which was driven by higher prices for energy, consumer goods and food in world markets, as well as tariff adjustments in the energy sector. It is noted that as a result of the depreciation of the exchange rate, prices in the domestic market are growing due to imported products, which contributes to inflation. Despite a significant tightening of monetary and liquidity policies, experts from the NBM and the IMF believe that high inflation is likely to persist until the fourth quarter of 2022 before starting to gradually decrease. “We expect inflation to slow down in September. According to our estimates, inflation will return to the target only by 2024,” the letter says.// 05.10.2022 — InfoMarket
