Romanian Bks Took RON352M Short-Term Loans From Ctrl Bk In June, Highest In 3 Mos

In April, lenders borrowed RON139 million through the central bank’s lending facility, while in May, banks did not borrow through the Lombard facility.

But the value in June is considerably lower than in the first quarter. In January, the central bank lent banks RON31.5 billion, followed by RON38.6 billion in February and RON16 billion in March.

Through the deposit facility, BNR attracted deposits worth RON4.17 billion in June, over 2-fold lower compared with the previous month.

The central bank offers lenders the short-term Lombard lending facility with an interest rate of the key monetary policy rate plus 4 percentage points. The banks can place their funds at the central bank for an interest rate of the key monetary policy rate minus 4 percentage points.

In June, the Lombard rate was at 13.5% a year, while the deposit facility rate stood at 5.5%.

At the same time, the central bank raised liquidity in June by an average of RON784.4 million per day in repo operations (liquidity-providing reverse transaction based on a repurchase agreement of state treasuries), 16.24% higher from RON643.8 million lent in May. The average interest rate for these operations was 9.5% a year in June, down from 9.71% in May and 10.03% in April.

Romania’s central bank decided on June 30 to cut the key monetary policy rate by 0.5 percentage points to 9%, starting with July 1.