Romania’s National Bank (BNR) Board of Directors decided on Tuesday, November 6, to keep the monetary policy rate unchanged at 2.5% per year.

The central bank also kept the existing levels of minimum reserve requirement ratios on both RON- and foreign currency-denominated liabilities of credit institutions.

BNR hasn’t changed the monetary policy rate since May, after three increases at the beginning of this year, from 1.75% to 2.5%, aimed at curbing down the inflation rate. In September, the annual inflation rate went down slightly to 5.03%, from 5.06% in August.

BNR governor Mugur Isarescu said on Tuesday that he expects the inflation rate to go down towards 3.5%, which is the upper limit of the inflation interval targeted by the central bank, local Mediafax reported. The October data, which will be released next week, should already show a significant drop, according to Isarescu.

editor@romania-insider.com