PM Economic Counsellor: We Hope To Radically Change The ROBOR Calculation Method

According to Valcov, the Government will work together with the Romanian National Bank (BNR) to find a solution in this regard which would not require parliamentary approval.

“I hope we can get a radical change in the way Robor is calculated or even see its demise (…) A decision will be made with the central bank, which can modify internal rules on market rates without requiring parliamentary approval,” Valcov told Bloomberg.

This marks a change in rapport between the Government and BNR, which have been at odds since late 2018 due to a new tax on banking assets dependent on the level of ROBOR indexes, penned by the Government but also by critics of the measure as a „greed tax”.

The counsellor suggested that the Government, BNR and banks in the country could all work together to ensure that ROBOR indexes stay below 2%, a level at which the aforementioned tax is eliminated.

Darius Valcov also showed a more conciliatory stance towards BNR regarding the sudden depreciation of the country’s national currency, which lost approximately 2% in exchange rates against the euro since the beginning of 2019.

The Government official said that BNR was trying to protect the currency from negative effects, despite the fact himself and other ruling party and cabinet figures accused the bank of not taking measures against what was believed to be a series of speculative attacks against the Romanian leu.