NBM LOWERS MONETARY POLICY INSTRUMENT RATES

The National Bank of Moldova gave to the market a new signal on lowering the cost of money. Its Administrative Board decided on Wednesday to lower the main monetary policy instrument rates.

According to the NBM press service, the base rate was lowered to 7% from 7.5%. Also, rates on overnight deposits and overnight credits were lowered by 0.5% - to 10% from 10.5% and to 4% from 4.5%, respectively.

Commenting on the base rate lowering, professional market participants said that this is a result of a planned and sustainable trend.

"This signal should be perceived as the next step to cheapening of resources on the market. In this way, the NBM is trying to stimulate the crediting of the real sector of economy", the agency interviewee said.

Asked whether currently credits are not taken because they are too expensive, the banker said that in foreign currency, the credit may be easily received with 5% interest rate, while in what concerns the national currency, the rates in lei are on average 10% and higher.

Analysts say that the regulator is trying to stimulate the crediting without affecting the required reserve rates, which currently are 40% in Moldovan lei and 14% in foreign currency.

"But, as soon as the wheel of crediting gains momentum and the base rate falls to 5-6%, the NBM will start lowering the bank reserve as well", they say.