Romania's National Central Bank decided to reduce the monetary policy interest rate by 0.5 percentage points, to 9% /year starting July 1, a press release of the central bank reads. Moreover, the bank decided to reduce the minimum mandatory reserve rate to 15% for stocks in lei and to 35% for stocks in foreign currency.
The key interest rate, reduced from 9.5% to 9% was expected by local financial analysts. According to an internal study put forward by the Financial - Banking Analysts Association in Romania, 86% of the participants estimated that the national bank might reduce the monetary policy interest rate due to the negative trend of the economic environment in the first quarter of the year.
