Romania's Central Bank maintains key interest rate, cuts mandatory reserves

The Romanian Central Bank (BNR) has decided in its monetary policy meeting on Thursday to keep the key interest rate at 6.25 percent. The bank has however decided to cut the mandatory reserves for passives in foreign currencies from 25 to 20 percent, while the level of reserves for passives in Romanian currency was kept at 15 percent. The new level of the mandatory reserves will be applied from April 24. BNR cut the rate from 6.5 percent to 6.25 percent in May last year. In December 2009, the key policy rate was of 8 percent and was gradually decreased throughout 2010. editor@romania-insider.com