Romania’s National Bank (BNR) board decided on Monday, August 6, to keep the monetary policy rate unchanged at 2.5% per year.

The central bank also pumped some RON 10.5 billion (EUR 2.26 billion) in the market on Monday, buying state bonds from local banks, in the first repo operation this year.

The BNR board considers that the measures taken in the first part of this year, when they increased the monetary policy rate three times, from 1.75% per year to 2.5% per year, have successfully stopped the inflation rate increase.

According to the central bank’s new scenario, the annual inflation rate will remain flat in the third quarter and start to decline in the last quarter. Moreover, BNR governor Mugur Isarescu said that the prices fell in July and the monthly inflation rate was negative.

The annual inflation rate stood at 5.4% in June, down from 5.41% in May.

editor@romania-insider.com