Romania’s Central Bank has put aside “a good percentage” from the monetary mass as a cash reserve for banking panics, such as those that occurred in the 90s, said Mugur Isarescu, the Governor of the Romanian Central Bank (BNR). “It is an essential feedstock,” he added.

He also said that a simpler tone for communication with the public should be promoted on BNR’s role in the development of the monetary mass and the monetary mass-inflation relationship, adding that most of the time price increases do not have a direct link with the evolution of the monetary mass.

According to the Central Bank, the narrow monetary mass M1 was some EUR 19.5 billion (RON 85 billion) at the end of January 2012, the intermediary monetary mass M2 - EUR 48 billion (RON 212 billion), while the broad M3 was about EUR 49 billion (RON 216 billion). M3 went up 0.2 percent compared to December 2011, and 8.8 percent over the same month last year.

Irina Popescu, irina.popescu@romania-insider.com

(photo source: Sxc.hu)