Bucharest, November 8, 2023 – # rbj – In its meeting of 8 November 2023, the Board of the National Bank of Romania decided:
– to keep the monetary policy rate at 7.00 percent per annum;
– to leave unchanged the lending (Lombard) facility rate at 8.00 percent per annum and the deposit facility rate at 6.00 percent per annum;
– to keep the existing levels of minimum reserve requirement ratios on both leu-and foreign currency-denominated liabilities of credit institutions.
The annual inflation rate went down to 8.83 percent in September 2023, in line with forecasts, from 9.43 percent in August, amid the deceleration in the growth rate of processed food prices and the faster annual decline in energy prices.
In 2023 Q3, the 12-month inflation rate continued therefore to drop, albeit at a slower pace than in the previous two quarters, shedding 1.42 percentage points (from 10.25 percent in June), given that the further sharp decreases in the dynamics of food and energy prices during this period were partly counterbalanced, in terms of impact, by the hike in fuel and medicine prices.
The annual adjusted CORE2 inflation rate saw a faster decrease in Q3, falling visibly below the forecast to reach 11.3 percent in September from 13.5 percent in June. The developments are mainly ascribable to declining prices of commodities, primarily agri-food items, and to the measure to temporarily cap the mark-ups on basic food products. However, they also reflect a weaker pass-through of higher corporate costs, especially wage costs, into consumer prices – amid the slowdown in consumer demand –, as well as a lower inflationary impact of imports.
The annual inflation rate calculated based on the Harmonised Index of Consumer Prices (HICP – inflation indicator for EU Member States) went down to 9.2 percent in September from 9.3 percent in June 2023. Furthermore, the average annual CPI inflation rate and the average HICP inflation rate fell to 12.6 percent and 11.4 percent respectively in September from 14.2 percent and 12.5 percent respectively in June, remaining below the levels prevailing in the region and the Baltic countries.
