The National Bank of Romania (BNR), Romania’s central bank, decided on Tuesday to maintain the monetary interest rate to its current level of 2.5 percent for the seventh time in a row, in line with economists’ expectations.
On May 7, 2018, the central bank raised the monetary interest rate from 2.25 percent to 2.5 percent, the highest level since February 2015, as a consequence of upward revision of the inflation forecast.
“In its meeting of 2 April 2019, the Board of the National Bank of Romania decided the following: to keep the monetary policy rate at 2.50 percent per annum; to leave unchanged the deposit facility rate at 1.50 percent per annum and the lending facility rate at 3.50 percent per annum; to maintain the existing levels of minimum reserve requirement ratios on both leu- and foreign currency-denominated liabilities of credit institutions,” the central bank said in a press release.
Central bank’s decision was expected by the economists.
Romania’s annual inflation rate rose to 3.8 percent in February. The current BNR forecasts show inflation slowing to 3 percent in December 2019.