BASE RATE CONTRIBUTES TO CREDIT COST LOWERING – NBM PRESIDENT

The base rate of the National Bank of Moldova contributes to lowering of interest rates on credits for real sector of economy, as well as to attraction of resources in the internal market by the state, said NBM President Octavian Armasu.

At the Thursday’s press conference, he said that the growth of banks’ crediting to legal and physical persons contributed to appearing of a trend of reducing the current liquidity in the banking system. The comparatively low base rate, which is preserved at 6.5% for already quite a long time, contributes to attraction of resources by the Ministry of Finance in the internal market at comparatively accessible prices.

Characterizing the trend of growing inflation in Moldova, Octavian Armasu said that the situation connected with the slowdown in the world economy growth influences the development of the Moldovan economy as well. Recently, international financial structures lowered the EU economies’ target growth, preserving unchanged just the small growth of Russian economy.

According to the banker, in 2019 it is expected that petroleum prices will grow within 15.1%, while the natural gas prices – 6.1%.

Talking about labor migrants’ remittances to Moldova, the banker said that the decreasing trend of receipts in rubles and US dollars from Russia is compensated by remittances or Euros and dollars from other countries, first of all the European Union.

Answering to the question about selling of large packages of shares in two systemic banks, the president said that a proposal came from the banks to extend the term of selling these assets, to which certain investors demonstrated their interest.

“The NBM extended the term of sale for 3 more months. I do not exclude that currently negotiations about selling these shares are conducted. If these are not sold in due time, the NBM will observe the procedure, clearly-stipulated by the legislation”, Armasu said.

As for the problem of integrating the Transnistrian banks in the Moldovan banking system, the NBM president said that the solution for this issue is connected with certain security risks for the Moldovan system. The banker added that the region’s banks should adopt the Moldovan leu as the only payment unit in the territory of Moldova.

As Infotag has already reported, the NBM published on Thursday a new forecast of inflation growth in 2019 and 2020 – 5.1% and 6.5%, respectively. Such a consumption price index will mean that regulator achieved its strategic goal – preserving of inflation within the corridor of 5% ± 1.5%.