Talmaci: Inflation will beat central bank forecasts

The National Bank of Moldova (NBM) doesn't plan to raise again the level of reserves the commercial banks must keep. Concerning its key refinancing rate, the central bank continues to monitor inflation developments and will decide when it should be altered, NBM governor Leonid Talmaci told reporters at a seminar this week, Info-Prim Neo reports. “Regretfully, energy prices are continuing to rise, and so are food prices. While many countries experience similar problems, Moldova also suffers the effects of last year's drought. So, it is quite difficult to say how things are going to go”, said Talmaci. According to the NBM governor, as a rule, Moldova registers deflation during the summertime. And this fact could balance to a certain extent the situation and remove the need for raising the refinancing rate. “It was proposed to adopt a state budget without deficit. Also, through amendments to the Entrepreneurship Law, the limit of cash that may be released to entities was lowered from 100,000 lei to just one thousand, including for paying customs duties. Other measures are also planned to increase non-cash operations and reduce the money base, such as the installment of point-of-sale terminals at the businesses which sell or provide services in large quantities. All these measures are meant to stop inflation. Still, it will surpass the one-digit target we have forecast in our documents”, Talmaci concluded.