OREANDA-NEWS. January 30, 2012. The National Bank of Moldova has decreased the estimated inflation rate for 2012 from 6.5 per cent as forecast in November 2011 to 4.9 per cent.

The National Bank of Moldova has reviewed its forecast given the deflationist trends triggered by an eventual recession in the euro zone and by a slower economic growth. The central bank foresees a 4.8-per-cent inflation rate for 2013. The target inflation rate pursued by the National Bank of Moldova stands at 5 +/- 1.5 per cent.

"The updated reports point to a 4.9-per-cent rate by the end of 2012 and to a 4.8-per-cent inflation rate in late 2013," the central bank has said in a press release.

The cut in the inflation rates was due to "unusual weather conditions for the concerned period, the evolution of the international currency markets and the uncertainty of the foreign economic environment, the consolidation of the Moldovan leu against the US dollar and euro, the diminution of the domestic economic activity, in the context of the decreasing foreign demand and the decreasing remittances from abroad," the BNM said, explaining the evolution of prices in 2011.

In 2011, the National Bank of Moldova changed four times the forecast inflation rate for 2012, from 4.5 per cent in February, to 5.7 per cent in May, then to 7.4 per cent in August and to 6.5 per cent in November 2011.

The state budget law for 2012 estimates an economic growth of 4.5 per cent and an inflation rate of 6.5 per cent.