NBR deputy governor Cristian Popa recommends the monetary policy rate should be raised on November 10, as a forward looking measure against next year's inflationary threats.
He does not agree with the theory of some analysts who believe the very fast progress in disinflation over the past few months would not call for a rate increase.
"Without prejudging the forthcoming Board (of Governors of NBR i.e.) decision (on November 10), that would be backward looking and therefore would provide an incomplete perspective," Popa told Bloomberg in an interview.
The deputy governor says the central bank must get "tough" in its interest rate policy to keep a cap on inflation amid rising consumer demand and surging economic growth.
"Any inflation targeting needs to be forward looking and pressures for next year are not small. I can state my personal preference, which is for policy to be appropriately tough," said the deputy governor directly in charge with inflation targeting.
Popa only has one vote of the nine in the Board of Governors. He says talks in the Board should be more transparent, which includes going public with the vote structure behind a specific decision, as banks in other Central European countries, such as Czech Republic and Hungary do.
Unlike Popa, the NBR Governor Mugur Isarescu has not made any public references to the interest rate over the last two months. Early in October, he said the central bank was expecting inflation to go down towards 5%. Once that goal attained, a reduction of the minimum mandatory reserves was to be considered.
NBR's Board of Governors has proven its capability of making relatively abrupt decisions about the interest rate early this year, in February, when it raised the monetary policy rate by one percent from 7.5% to 8.5% a year, for fear of a chain reaction caused by the increase in the cont
