National Bank of Moldova unveils inflation report No 2, prices continue dropping

Chisinau, 7 May /MOLDPRES/ - The annual inflation rate will decrease from 4.7 per cent recorded in March 2018 to 2.2 per cent, on average, for the fourth quarter of 2018, under the lower limit of the variation interval of plus/minus 1.5 percentage points of the five-percent inflation target. The average annual value will return to the variation interval of the target in the first half of 2019, the first deputy governor of the National Bank of Moldova (BNM), Vladimir Munteanu, today said during the presentation of the Inflation Report No 2.  

According to Munteanu, in comparison with the values recorded in the Inflation Report No 1, the annual planned average inflation rate is lower by 0.4 percentage points for 2018 and increases by 0.2 percentage points for 2019.  

BNM revised downwards the forecast of the inflation rate for 2018 at a yearly average of 3.3 per cent and increased the prospects for the next year to 4.9 per cent, against 4.7 per cent forecast earlier.  

The annual inflation rate diminished from 7.3 per cent in December 2017 to 4.7 per cent in March 2018, as a result of the cut in prices for agro-food products, regulated prices and the prices for energy resources.    

The risks related to inflation’s prospects, especially for the second part of the forecast horizon, come from the increase in international prices for oil and raw materials, uncertainty as to the duration of this increase, commercial dissensions between the principal actors of the world economy, vulnerability of prices for the native agricultural products to the weather conditions, uncertainties as to the 2018 harvest and the adjusting of tariffs for the regulated services in 2019.     

(Reporter V. Bercu, editor L. Alcaza)