The main objective of the National Bank for 2007 is maintaining inflation in the 10% limit

The National Bank of Moldova (NBM) set as “fundamental objective” for 2007 the maintenance of the inflation rate in the limit of up to 10%, shows the monetary policy for next year, made public by the central bank. The policy revolves around an increase in the GDP of 4%. With the goal of reaching the fundamental objective, the NBM will promote a monetary policy based on the following monetary indicators: - an increase of the monetary base with an upper limit of 9.7%; - an increase of the money supply M2 (in lei) with an upper limit of 20%; - a degree of monetarization of M2 (the ratio of M2 to the GDP) at a level of 32% by the end of 2007. The government debt to the NBM will be in the limit coordinated by the parties and stipulated in the budget law for 2007, the document says. The monetary policy stipulates that, for 2007, the surplus of liquidity in the banking system will remain at a level comparable to that of 2006 and will be influenced by the penetration of foreign currency, including investments and remittances, the NBM interventions on the exchange market, the volume of state fixed assets transferred by the Ministry of Finance in accounts at the NBM, as well as the changes in the volume of money in circulation. The central bank specifies in its policy that the decrease of the annual inflation rate requires the implementation of a set of macroeconomic policies, including, first of all, a monetary policy which would determine the decrease of the liquidity excess and to temper the inflationist expectations. In order to reply to the request, the NBM will continue, in 2007, the increase of its operations to sterilize the liquidity excess through the utilization of all the instruments at its disposal. Within the implementation of the monetary policy for 2007, the NBM will tend towards maintaining its international currency reserves at a level acceptable for the covering of three months’ imports. In the case of macroeconomic changes to the economic and financial situation, which would influence the monetary policy, as well as the in the case of a change of the financing of the RM from international financial institutions, the NBM reserves itself the right to revise its monetary policy during 2007.