“You’ll see that neither a higher nor a lower rate, but a flat one will push inflation toward the target in the next period,” Isarescu said in a speech after he was handed the Dr. Honoris Causa title at the Romanian-American University in Bucharest.
The central bank Wednesday left its key rate unchanged at a record low of 6.25% a year for the ninth consecutive meeting. The bank also froze the minimum reserve requirements at 15% for Romanian-leu denominated liabilities and at 20% for foreign currency liabilities.
Romanian inflation accelerated to 8.41% in May, the highest rate since July 2008.
The central bank targets an annual inflation of 3% at the end of 2011, plus/minus one percentage point around the band. The bank recently revised upward its forecast on the year-end inflation to 5.1% from 3.6%, citing upside pressure from surging global prices for energy and food items.