The governor of the National Bank of Moldova Anca Dragu said there are all the preconditions for serious investments to come to Moldova as there is a solid, sustainable and resilient financial framework and banking system, while the state’s economic policies are geared towards supporting investments. The statement was made during the second edition of the Chisinau Economic Forum held under the aegis of the Romanian royal family, IPN reports.
“The banking sector in the Republic of Moldova is a solid, safe one and it underwent restructuring. Currently, 93% of the bank capital is possessed by owners from the European Union, which makes governance rules clear, firm. This is what Moldova needed,” said Anca Dragu.
According to her, ensuring price stability is the main objective of the NBM. The institution also managed to place the inflation in the targeted corridor of around 5%. This allowed taking a decision to reduce the monetary policy rate from 4.75% to 4.25% on February 6. “It was a signal given to the market that things are going tight and that we expect inflation in 2024 to remain in this corridor,” noted the NBM governor.
Anca Dragu said that, with this level of inflation and a monetary policy rate of 4.25%, the cost of lending becomes affordable for a company. “When inflation reached over 30%, financial intermediation surely suffered. We look at this percentage. Only 20% of the Gross Domestic Product or the share of the private, nongovernment credit is 20% of the GDP. There is room for improvement here and what we are trying to do is to find a way to facilitate this dialogue between the business community and the banking sector to increase demand for loans. As I said, the banking sector is well capitalized, liquid and generally with good quality indicators,” stated the governor.
According to Anca Dragu, in order to facilitate economic activity, the National Bank of Moldova recently signed the application for Moldova’s accession to the Single Euro Payments Area (SEPA). Joining SEPA means no differences between domestic and cross-border noncash payments in euro, but also cheaper transactions, reduced time and security of transfers.
The Chisinau Economic Forum is staged on February 22-23 by the business club International Business Society, in partnership with the Investment Agency of Moldova, the Department for Relations with the Republic of Moldova of the Government of Romania, and Transylvania Today.
