The central bank also raised the interest rate for its deposit facility to 1.5% a year from 1% a year and the interest for its (Lombard) lending facility to 3.5% a year from 3% a year, applicable as of February 10, the central bank said in a statement.
It also decided to maintain the existing levels of minimum reserve requirement ratios on both leu- and foreign currency-denominated liabilities of credit institutions.
The annual inflation rate climbed to 8.2% in December 2021, from 7.8% in November and 7.94% in October, rising even higher above the upper bound of the variation band of the target, mainly as a result of further hikes in energy prices.
In 2021, the annual inflation rate thus added 6.13 percentage points (from 2.06% in December 2020). 80% of the increase came however from an advance in natural gas, electricity and fuel prices, while half of the contribution of only 15% made by core inflation was attributable to processed food, with the annual adjusted CORE2 inflation rate going up to 4.7% in December 2021, from 3.3% in December 2020. Consequently, the rise in the annual inflation rate was almost entirely driven by global supply-side shocks, triggering a steep upward movement of inflation worldwide in 2021, including in numerous European countries. On the domestic market, their effects were intensified by the liberalisation of the electricity market for household consumers.