At the end of this September, the profit made by banks was by 71.6% higher than in the corresponding period of 2021, rising from 1.6 to 2.8 billion lei. Economic expert Viorel Gîrbu stated for RFE/RL’s Moldovan Service that the significant profit made by banks is due to the National Bank of Moldova’s interventions, IPN reports.
The banks’ interest revenue grew by 77% or 2.8 billion lei on last September, according to the central bank. The sum obtained by banks from charges and commissions and from the exchange rate differences also rose. The banking sector, according to data presented banks, saw a rise in assets, loans, own funds and deposits. Even so, the deposits of private individuals and legal entities deceased, while the expired and nonperforming loans increased in value.
“The NBM obliged the banks to increase the rate on the released loans. As a result of the modification of the monetary policy, the lending costs for the government increased a lot. In fact, the government pays the most. It even paid interest of over 20%,” said Viorel Gîrbu. He explained for the quoted source that the commercial banks changed their approach and increased the interest rates under the limit set by the central bank, while the government had to repay the borrowed money.
The Ministry of Finance’s data concerning the internal state debt in the first nine months of this year show that state securities to the value of about 18.5 billion lei were issued and 75.8% of these were purchased by bank investors. This way, the state borrowed over 14 billion lei from banks and the sum paid as interest came to about 900 million lei, which is one third of the banks’ interest revenue.
At the beginning of December, the central bank reduced the base rate by 1.5% to 20%. This was the first reduction the last two years. NBM governor Octavian Armașu said the decision was taken after the central bank’s last inflation forecast was confirmed and disinflation tendencies were witnessed.
