BNM updates inflation forecast

The National Bank of Moldova (BNM) reviewed the inflation forecast for this year, decreasing the inflation rate for the end of 2013 to 4.1%, down from the rate of 5.3% projected last October, Info-Prim Neo reports. “We expect that the inflation over the next eight quarters will be within the BNM’s target of 5%, plus-minus 1.5 percentage points,” the central bank’s governor Dorin Dragutanu told a news conference. According to Dorin Dragutanu, the downward review of the inflation rate is due to the decrease in the aggregate demand that exerted inflationist pressure. At the same time, the impact of the drought on the food products was lower than believed in October 2012. The governor said that the food prices will continue to exert pressure in the first two quarters of 2013, but this pressure will diminish in the third quarter. The fuel prices will go up. However, the growth rate of fuel prices will be lower than in the last two years. Dorin Dragutanu said that the prices regulated by the state are not projected to rise in 2013. There are no preconditions for increasing the import prices of gas, but the prices of electric power may increase.