The governor of the National Bank of Moldova Octavian Armașu said he considers the withdrawal of foreign exchange reserves for performing modernization and infrastructure works, as President Igor Dodon suggested, is inacceptable, IPN reports.

Asked in a news conference to comment on expert opinions that such a scenario can lead to a considerable rise in the rate of inflation, up to two-digit inflation, the governor said an eventual withdrawal of funds from the foreign exchange reserves will have the same effect as the annulment of state securities. More exactly, there will be witnessed a situation of money issuance without coverage.

“The uncovered money issuance can lead to a high rate of inflation, to the depreciation of the leu and other unfavorable conditions that will first of all affect the people with the most modest incomes,” stated Octavian Armaşu.

He insisted that the law also does not provide such a measure. Octavian Armaşu said he had discussions with President Dodon on the issue and this assured him that there are no such intentions. “It was probably an interpretation, a discussion that was misunderstood in the public sphere, but he assured me that there are no intentions of withdrawing reserves,” noted the governor.

On January 31, 2019, the official reserve assets were US$2.908,56 billion, a decrease of US$86.63 million compared with December 28, 2018, when these totaled US$2.995,19 billion.