ING Bank has reduced its estimates on Romania’s inflation rate for 2015 and 2016 by 0.2 percentage points, due to the oil price evolutions.

The bank’s analysts expect Romania’s inflation rate to be -0.7% at the end of this year and 1.2% at the end of 2016. However, ING increased its inflation forecast for 2017 by 0.6 percentage points, to 2.7%, reports local Mediafax.

Romania had an annual inflation rate of -1.64% in October 2015, reflecting a drop in consumer prices compared to October 2014 due to the VAT rate cut on food in June.

ING’s forecasts are close to the central bank’s estimates, which indicate a -0.7% inflation rate for 2015 and 1.1% for 2016.

ING’s analysts expect Romania’s National Bank (BNR) to continue its monetary relaxation policy next year by reducing the minimum mandatory reserve ratio for the local bank’s RON-denominated liabilities by 6 percentage points, to 2%, which would release over EUR 2 billion worth of liquidities in the market.

editor@romania-insider.com