On Friday (Jan 22), the three-month rate ended last week at 1.60% a year, after stagnating at 1.59% a year for four days, between January 18 and 21.
The decline of the three-month rate at the beginning of last week was impacted by the decision of Romania’s central bank to lower its main monetary policy rate to a new record low of 1.25% a year, from 1.50% a year, starting Jan 18, 2021.
The rate ended 2020 at 2.03% a year, compared with 3.19% a year in early 2020.
ROBOR is a monetary indicator used to calculate variable interests for loans in lei and interests for mortgage loans. Loans in lei with variable interests, granted before May 2019, depend on the variations of the ROBOR index.
The IRCC, which is defined as the quarterly average of interbank money market transactions, replaced the ROBOR money market interest rate in the calculation of variable interests on new retail loans in lei, at the beginning of May 2019. The IRCC value applicable to the first quarter of 2021 is 1.88%.