The Executive Committee of the National Bank of Moldova on July 26 decided to maintain the base rate on the main short-term monetary policy operations at the current level of 8% a year. Consequently, the interest rates on the permanent instruments will also be maintained, said the first vice governor of the National Bank Vladimir Munteanu, IPN reports.

The Executive Committee also decided to maintain the mandatory foreign exchange reserves attracted in Moldovan lei and nonconvertible currency at the current level of 40% of the calculation basis and the mandatory foreign exchange reserves attracted in freely convertible currency at the current level of 14%.

“Such a decision was taken based on the dynamics of the macroeconomic indicators, the results of the most recent analyses and assessments and the need to estimate the impact of the previous monetary policy actions,” stated Vladimir Munteanu.

The central bank confirmed the existence of pressure to temper the economic activity, a diminution in the inflationist pressure in the medium term and the moderate appreciation of the real value of the leu.

According to the latest round of forecast, the average annual inflation rate will reach a level of 6.5 percent in 2017 and 4.4 percent in 2018. The decision taken by the Executive Committee is aimed at creating real monetary conditions able to bring back the inflation to the variation interval of ± 1.5 percentage points of the target inflation of 5.0% in the medium term, says a press release of the central bank.