September 30 (SeeNews) - Romania's central bank, BNR, decided on Friday to maintain its monetary policy rate at a record low of 1.75%.
BNR's board also decided to cut the minimum reserve requirements ratio on foreign exchange-denominated liabilities of credit institutions to 10% from 12% starting with the October 24 - November 23, 2016 maintenance period, BNR said in a statement published on its website.
The minimum reserve requirements ratio on leu-denominated liabilities remains unchanged at 8%, the bank added.
BNR last changed its monetary policy rate in May 2015, when it cut it by 25 basis points to 1.75%.
Romania's consumer price deflation slowed to 0.2% year-on-year in August from 0.8% in July.
In a more detailed statement released later on Friday, BNR said that recent assessments reconfirm the expectations inflation to remain in negative territory year-on-year until end-2016.
"Thereafter, the annual inflation rate is expected to pick up gradually and return inside the variation band of the flat target in 2017 H2, amid the fading-out of the effects exerted by the standard VAT rate cuts and by global disinflationary shocks, along with inflationary pressures from aggregate demand and unit wage costs", BNR said.
"Risks to the inflation outlook stem from elevated uncertainties surrounding both the domestic and external environments," the Romanian central bank added.
The central bank announced that it will hold next monetary policy meeting on November 4, 2016, when a new quarterly inflation report is to be examined.