The base rate on the main short-term monetary policy operations will remain at the level of 19.5% a year. A decision to this effect was taken by the Executive Board of the National Bank of Moldova on November 26, IPN reports.

The central bank also decided to maintain the interest rate on overnight loans at 22.5%, while that on overnight deposits – at 16.5% annually. The decision was taken with the aim of curbing and maintaining the rate of inflation around the target of 5% in the medium term, with a possible deviation of ±1.5 percentage points.

The rate of inflation in October was 13.2%, up 0.6 percentage points on the previous month. The rise was mainly due to the increase in the contribution of the base rate and food prices to 4.8 and, respectively, 4.7 percentage points. The contribution made by the regulated prices was slightly over on September (3.4 percentage points).

At the end of October, the balance of loans provided to the economy and of attracted deposits decreased by 13.3% and 2.4% respectively compared with the end of last October. The annual average interest rates on loans and deposits in national currency rose by 0.18 percentage points to 12.89% and by 0.54 percentage points to 13.24% compared with end-September.