National Bank and the members of its decision-making bodies shall be independent in exercising the tasks conferred upon them by law, and shall neither seek nor take instructions from public authorities or from any other authority.
In order to ensure and maintain price stability over the medium term, the National Bank’s aim will be to keep inflation (measured by Consumer Price Index) at the level of 5.0 percent annually with a possible deviation of ± 1.5 percentage points, considered to be optimal for growth and development of Moldova's economy over the medium-term.
National Bank shall have the exclusive right to issue on the territory of the Republic of Moldova banknotes and coins as legal tender, as well as commemorative and jubilee banknotes and coins as legal tender and for numismatic purposes.
National Bank of Moldova acts as banker and fiscal agent of the State and shall receive from state bodies economic and financial information and documents, which are necessary for carrying out its tasks.
National Bank of Moldova supervises the payment system of the Republic of Moldova and promotes a stable and efficient functioning of the automated inter-bank payment system
National Bank shall inform the public on the monetary policy strategy on the results of the macroeconomic analysis, the evolution of the financial market and on statistics, including with regard to monetary supply, crediting, balance of payments and the state of the foreign exchange market.
National Bank of Moldova is responsable for the compilation of the balance of payments, international investment position and the statistics of the external debt of the Republic of Moldova.
The Executive Board of the National Bank of Moldova (NBM) decided unanimously to decrease by 2.0 percentage points the base rate applied to the main short-term monetary policy operations, up to 5.5 percent annually.
The decision aims to maintain the inflation within the target range of 5.0 percent, which represents an optimal situation for national economy development. At the same time, the decision corresponds to the NBM previous forecasts on inflation development. In this regard, at the presentation of the last Inflation Report, the NBM Governor, Octavian Armașu, mentioned that the National Bank of Moldova will need to adjust its policies in the direction of a relaxation, due to the fact that an inflation decrease is expected next year.
In the disinflationary conditions of 2020, the NBM decision will support the economy’s competitiveness and will boost the lending activity.
At the same meeting, the Executive Board decided to decrease the interest rates on overnight loans and deposits to 8.5 percent and, respectively, to 2.5 percent annually. At the same time, the required reserves ratio in Moldovan lei and non-convertible currencies decreased, while the required reserves ratio in freely convertible currencies increased. This will encourage the financial intermediation in national currency and, respectively, will discourage that in foreign currency.
National Bank will continue to monitor the situation and will come with incentive measures, if necessary.
Next meeting on monetary policy of the NBM’s Executive Board will be held on 29 January 2020, according to the published schedule.
