National Bank of Moldova says government's resignation, postponing of IMF mission, other factors lead to leu's depreciation

Chisinau, 18 June /MOLDPRES/ -  The National Bank of Moldova (BNM) does not see prerequisites for fluctuations on the currency market, "from the viewpoint of the fundamental short-term economic factors," the first deputy BNM governor, Marin Molosag ,told a today's news conference. 

At the same time, the official said that "the government's resignation, discussions on the situation in the banking sector, postponing of the visit by the International Monetary Fund Mission and other talks with development partners are among the factors which trigger the Moldovan leu's depreciation. "All these discussions do not create a positive background for evolution on the foreign exchange market," Molosag said.

The decrease of remittances, foreign trade, direct investments and capital flows, as well as of credits and other means provided by development partners lead to the increase in the exchange rate. „We may notice a decrease this year, although a stabilization of the foreign exchange market has been observed over the past months,” Marin Molosag said.

Molosag said that the net currency supply from private persons had been lower in the past few months compared to 2014, but was on the rise from a month to another. In past January and February, the supply stood at 70 and, respectively, 20 million dollars, and, starting from March, when the supply reached 118 million, it has been increasing and got to 129 million in April and 163 million dollars in May.

An adjustment of the trade, anticipated by BNM, was recorded. In the first five months of 2015, the net flow related to import and export operations decreased to 454 million dollars against 755 million on the same period of 2014. Direct investments dropped almost three-fold, to 22 million dollars. 

At the same time, Molosag underlined that the level of coverage of demand of legal entities via the supply coming from private persons entered a positive trend over the past three months, reaching 130.6 per cent in May. The currency demand is lower than the supply of private persons.

BNM is expecting the appointment of a new government and the IMF mission, in order to „discuss the macroeconomic framework, budget and banking system”. „We believe that this is the best solution to ensure economic stability: a programme with IMF and starting talks with other development partners,” Molosag said.

BNM data shows that the national currency depreciated from 18.0719 Moldovan lei per dollar on 1 June to 18.5085 on 18 June and against euro from 19.8 to 20.8 lei per euro.

(Reporter V. Bercu, Editor M. Jantovan)