August 5 (SeeNews) - Moldova's central bank decided to raise its policy rate to 21.5% from 18.5% in order to temper the rise in consumer prices and to mitigate risks stemming from the war in Ukraine.
Interest rates on overnight loans and deposits will also increase by 3 percentage points - to 23.5% and 19.5% per annum, respectively, the central bank, BNM, said in a press release on Thursday evening.
This is the highest level of the key rate since 2001, data posted on the BNM's website showed.
The decision aims at tempering the rapid growth rates of consumer prices, mitigating the secondary effects of supply shocks, stimulating financial intermediation in the national currency and saving against consumption, and anchoring inflationary expectations, the BNM said.
Moldova's consumer prices rose to a new 23-year high of 31.83% year-on-year in June, compared to 29.05% in the previous month, the latest data from the National Bureau of Statistics showed.
The central bank's executive board will hold its next monetary policy meeting on September 13
(1 euro = 19.7052 Moldovan lei)