The National Bank of Belarus will maintain the refinancing rate at 23.5% per annum in November.

13 November, Minsk /BELTA/. The National Bank of the Republic of Belarus will maintain the refinancing rate at 23.5% per annum in November. This was reported to BELTA by the Information and Public Relations Department of the National Bank.

"At the regular meeting of the Board of the National Bank held on November 12, it was decided to maintain the refinancing rate at 23.5% per annum this month as well," the National Bank stated.

Consumer price growth in the last two months has been above forecast parameters (1.7% in September, 1.9% in October). At the same time, in annual terms (compared to the corresponding month of the previous year), inflation slowed down from 21.8% in December 2012 to 15.5% in October of the current year.

"Despite the increase in ruble deposits of the population in October 2013, their growth is not sufficiently stable. In these conditions, maintaining the current refinancing rate will ensure an attractive yield on ruble deposits, significantly exceeding the yield on foreign currency deposits, will contribute to maintaining stability in the domestic foreign exchange market, and will also curb inflationary processes," the bank noted.

The National Bank last lowered the refinancing rate on June 10 - by 1.5 percentage points to 23.5%. For the first time in 2013, the refinancing rate was lowered on March 13 - from 30% to 28.5% per annum (before that, the rate had not changed for six months). A subsequent reduction occurred on April 17 - also by 1.5 percentage points to 27% per annum, and then on May 15 - by 2 percentage points to 25% per annum. In general, it was planned to reduce the refinancing rate to 13-15% per annum in 2013. However, as National Bank representatives have repeatedly stated, the dynamics of the refinancing rate will depend on the macroeconomic situation.-0-