Early last week, the three-month rate stood at 1.81%.
Since September 24, 2021, when it reached 1.65%, the three-month rate has increased daily, growing over 27% between Sept 24 and Oct 8, 2021.
The rate stood at 3.19% a year in early 2020 and at 2.03% a year at the end of 2020.
The six-month money market rate, which is used to calculate interests on leu-denominated mortgage loans, on Monday stayed at Friday’s value of 2.19%.
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 index fell to 1.08% for the loans contracted in the second quarter of 2021, from the 1.25% level in January-March 2021, staying way below the level of the three-month rate used for the loans contracted until May 2019.
The IRCC index is less than half the level of the first value calculated, of 2.36%, valid for loans contracted in the fourth quarter of 2018. The maximum level was reached in the first half of 2019, when the IRCC was 2.63% in the first quarter and 2.66% in the second quarter. Subsequently, the index was on downward trend.
Romania’s central bank on Tuesday (October 5) raised its benchmark interest rate to 1.5% a year from an all-time low of 1.25% a year. It also raised the interest for its deposit facility to 1% a year from 0.75% a year and the interest for its (Lombard) lending facility to 2% a year from 1.75% a year, applicable as of October 6, 2021. It also decided to maintain the existing levels of minimum reserve requirement ratios on both leu- and foreign currency-denominated liabilities of credit institutions.