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© National Bank of Moldova |
CHISINAU (Moldova), December 25 (SeeNews) – Moldova's central bank, BNM, on Thursday forecast a real 6.0% growth of the country's economy next year and said it would aim to keep end-year inflation at 9.0%.
The Moldovan government has projected a real 6.0% economic growth and 9.5% inflation for 2009.
"The BNM's monetary and foreign exchange policy next year will be based on keeping the inflation rate at 9.0% by the end of 2009 with a possible fluctuation of one percentage point," the cenrtal bank said in a statement.
Moldova plans to end the current year with 9.0% inflation, down from 13.1% at the end of 2007.
The main instruments of BNM's monetary policy in 2009 will be the bank's interest rate and the minimum reserves requirements on both leu- and foreign currency-denominated liabilities of Moldovan commercial banks.
Earlier this month BNM cut its key interest rate to 14.0% from 15.5% to reflect slowing inflation in the country. Moldova's consumer prices remained unchanged in November on a monthly basis, after rising by 0.8% a month earlier. Year-on-year, November inflation slowed to 8.5% from 9.8% in October.
BNM also said it expects Moldova's money supply to grow slower next year than it did last year but did not elaborate.
Moldova's M1 money supply was 11.6% higher year-on-year at the end of November, while the M2 money aggregate rose 26% on the year.
BNM added that it will continue its interventions on the foreign exchange market to smooth down excessive fluctuations of the official exchange rate and to boost foreign exchange reserves. It will also aim to keep foreign exchange reserves at a level sufficient to cover three-month imports.
Moldova's foreign exchange reserves rose to $1.58 billion (1.1 billion euro) in December 2008 from $1.3 billion at the end of 2007.
The Moldovan leu firmed to 14.6 per euro on December 25 from 16.6 at the end of 2007 in the BNM's official exchange rate. The Moldovan currency has also strengthened to 10.4 lei per dollar on December 25 from 11.3 lei at the end of 2007.
($=0.7135 euro)
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