This week’s political turmoil triggered an interest rate normalisation cycle, reported bneIntelliNews. A couple of hours before the fall of the Cîțu cabinet, the National Bank of Romania (BNR) hiked the monetary policy interest rate by 25bp to 1.5%. The rate increase was widely expected although the timing surprised analysts who had expected the rate hike in November.

The 3-month ROBOR index increased from 2.01% at the beginning of the year to 2.07% on Wednesday, which is above the 2% interest rate at which banks can borrow urgently from the BNR, reported Ziarul Financiar.