The governor of the National Bank Dorin Dragutanu is optimistic about the stability of the Moldovan leu and sees nothing to worry about the recent devaluation of the national currency. He spoke on this topic at Publika TV's Fabrika talk-show on Friday, IPN reports.
According to the governor's forecast, the devaluation process should inverse if no barriers such as export restrictions appear in the near future. “The situation is under control and BNM has sufficient currency reserves to intervene, but this is not opportune right now”, said Dragutanu.
“Lately, the leu has decreased by 3%, but the situation is much better than that of our neighbors Ukraine and Russia, who experienced a 7% currency devaluation in just two weeks, or Kazakhstan, where the devaluation hit 20% in just one day”, he explained.
The governor even sees possible benefits in the devaluation of the leu, such as increased economic activity and higher competitiveness for domestic products.
Dorin Dragutanu also spoke about an illegal scheme to overtake controlling stakes in commercial banks, carried out by a group of “crooks”. According to him, the “crooks” sidestepped the law restricting the purchase of stakes over 5% without the agreement of the National Bank by creating several companies to buy stakes under 5% and then merging the new stakeholders.
“The scheme allowed them to overtake 30% of Victoriabank. For this reason, BNM restricted the new stakeholders' voting rights after being notified by EBRD”, said Dragutanu.
Although he didn't name “the crooks”, the governor deems suspect the appearance of businessman Veaceslav Platon as legal representative of Vormax Company, which was involved in the purchase of several share packages under 5% in commercial banks.
“These schemes might destabilize the banking system, but BNM has sufficient legislative tools to stop them and is backed politically by national authorities and by international financial organizations”, closed Dragutanu.
