A law that will cap interest rates on loans is to be adopted by Parliament and the beneficiaries of the First House program will get subsidies for paying the rate to the bank, assured Prime Minister Natalia Gavrilița. According to the official, the authorities have examined the problem of higher interest rates on loans for the First House and decided that the families with children and public sector employees will benefit from state support to pay interest, IPN reports.
The interest rates on loans provided through the First House program on July 1, 2022 grew by 5.35 percentage points. According to the National Bank of Moldova, the rise is due to the increase in the reference rate from 4.12% to 9.47%.
“Despite manipulative statements, we have dealt with this issue. We carried out analyses and proposed several strategies. The bill that prevents the banks from increasing the interest rate by more than 4% over six months is under discussion. As a result, the interest rate will decrease by at least 1% at the moment. The state will also provide subsidies to cover a part of the interest where it pays the body of the loan. The beneficiaries include those who need assistance, families with children or public sector employees whose salaries remained unchanged. By the end of this month, when the First House beneficiaries need to pay the interest rate, we will make the announcement concerning the state subsidies,” Natalia Gavrilița stated in an interview for the portal Nord News of Bălți.
The Premier assured that the Government will help the citizens cope with the soaring prices. Natalia Gavrilița said the list of socially important goods was extended so as to keep the prices of the main products under control.
“A large part of this inflation is imported. We see how the prices of energy resources grow subsequently. We see how the food prices increase globally. The level of prices is within the remit of the NBM and these rises in interest are aimed at limiting consumption. On the other hand, we are experiencing a crisis with economic decline, when there is less economic activity and the Government needs to formulate expansive fiscal policies. This means we must invest more to keep the economy active. It is a difficult situation we try to manage through a number of actions. First of all, we intervene to deal with the rise in prices where we can. We extended the list of products that are considered socially important, on which the profit margin was limited,” stated the official.
Natalia Gavrilița also said that the mechanism for providing subsidies for the cold period of the year will be soon made public. This way the state will help the citizens pay the higher gas and heat bills depending on the energy vulnerability of each family. The energy vulnerability level will be determined by considering the size of incomes, the number of family members and energy consumption.
