Monetary policy rate drops to historic low: 2 percent

The Board of Romania's Central Bank, BNR, decided to drop again the monetary policy rate by 0.25 percent to 2 percent, achieving a new historic low which will come into effect on April 1, 2015.

The announcement has been anticipated by financial specialists given the successive reductions of the monetary policy rate that had been applied following the previous meetings of the Bank's Board.

Additionally, BNR decided tonarrow the symmetrical corridor of interest rates on its standing facilities around the policy rate to ±1.75 percentage points from ±2.00 percentage points.

Consequently, starting with April 1, 2015, the interest rate on the BNR’s lending facility (Lombard) is lowered to 3.75 percent per year from 4.25 percent, while the deposit facility rate remains at 0.25 percent per year, states a media release.

As regards the minimum reserve requirement ratios on liabilities of credit institutions, the BNR Board left unchanged the current levels: 14 percent for foreign currency-denominated liabilities and 10 percent for lei-denominated currency liabilities.

The Bank will also continue to pursue adequate liquidity management in the banking system, according to the same release.