PM Tudose says central bank should take care of ROBOR fluctuations

Romanian Prime minister Mihai Tudose on Friday asserted in the southwestern spa resort Baile Herculane that the central bank (BNR) is the one that has to take care of the recent fluctuations of the ROBOR interbank offered rate.

"When taking over they said we were to run aground at August-end, that we are not going to have money for wages. Then, everybody recommended us to get milder with certain economic operators, that probably the revenge will come. The ROBOR could not drop anymore, it hit a historic low in Romania. It could only go up from there. What is going on on the banking segment I believe you could ask the central bank's governor, as he is coordinating and since it's his job, at least theoretically, to take care of these fluctuations," Mihai Tudose stated. 

Referring to the increase in the energy prices, the Romanian Premier reminded that a decision was made in the gov't to send a notification to the Chamber of Deputies to start an investigation at the energy regulator ANRE, which ended in replacing the authority's head, as well. 

ROBOR, the average interest rate the banks operating in Romania lend each other on Friday climbed up to 2.18 pct on the interbank market, at three months, from 2.09 pct on Thursday, read the data released by the BNR. 

The 3-month ROBOR has roughly recovered the value it used to have at the end of October 2014. On 28 October 2014, the ROBOR parked at 2.20 pct per annum. 

As for the 6-month ROBOR, it has reached on Friday to 2.29 pct, from 2.19 pct on Thursday, a level similar to the one it saw on 5 November 2014. 

According to BNR data, at the beginning of the year ROBOR was parked at 0.87 pct.