The bank also froze the minimum reserve requirements at 15% for Romanian-leu denominated liabilities and at 20% for foreign currency liabilities.
The International Monetary Fund has recently said the annual inflation is likely to ease further over the coming months, but the year-end rate will probably come in above the central bank’s forecast of 5%.
Romanian consumer prices fell 0.29% in June from a month earlier, pushed down by cheaper food items, while the annual inflation eased to an unexpected 7.93%, from a 33-month high of 8.41% in May.
The central bank targets an annual inflation of 3% at the end of 2011, plus/minus one percentage point around the band. The bank has revised upwards its inflation forecast for 2011, to 5.1%, from 3.6%, sensibly above the target.
The central bank has left its main interest rate unchanged at an all-time low of 6.25% a year since May 2010. The bank cut its key rate in four steps last year, from 8% at the end of 2009.