The National Bank needed more than one year to cut the key rateon RON by 3.75% to an all-time low of 6.5% per annum, even thoughthe economy slipped into recession in the summer of 2008.
NBR yesterday took one more step towards making loans cheaper, bycutting the key rate by half a percentage point, to 6.5% a year,but warns again that bankers are behind with adjusting interestscharged from their clients.
The decision was expected by most analysts and players, given thatinflation fell back to levels accepted by the NBR in February andthe RON is following an upward trend, so that the impact on theforex and monetary markets was insignificant.
Bankers are pleased with NBR's move but remain sceptical and saymore needs to be done if lending is to be resumed, especially interms of risk perception.
"We, too, are interested in having the economy move and theconsumer and mortgage lending pick up because they are stagnatingnow. What NBR has done is consistent with a normal policy," saysSorin Popa, deputy CEO of BRD-SocGen, the second largest bank onthe Romanian market.
Even after this step, NBR remains the central bank with the highestinterest rate of all central banks in the EU, although the economyis unable to resume growth.
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