OREANDA-NEWS. December 22, 2008. As it is stated in NBM communication, at the same time, the administrative board of NBM has also decided to lower the mandatory reserves from the means attracted by the banks by 1.5 points - from 19% up to 17.5%.

Decreased mandatory reserves norm will be used since the beginning of monitoring means attracted by the banks from December 21, 2008 till January 5th, 2009. Reduction of mandatory reserve norms by 1.5 points would increase the credit resources of the banking system by about 229 million leis, US8.7 million and 9.7 million euros.

Decrease of the base rate (for the third time during last three months) should encourage the process of reducing interest rates, including the rates on loans.

As NBM states, the third consecutive decrease in the base rates and mandatory reserves norms was made possible by the reduction of the inflation up to 8.5% in annual expression (November 2008 vs. November 2007). Projections of the National Bank confirms declining trend of inflation in the subsequent periods.

NBM said that it would continue to monitor situation at the domestic and foreign monetary, currency and credit markets and will promptly intervene in order to reduce any negative impact of the global crisis on the economy of Moldova.