Isarescu can rest on his laurels

International Monetary Fund’s recipe to kill inflation did not work in Romania, Mugur Isarescu, National Bank of Romania (NBR) governor was quoted as saying by The Banker’s latest issue. “We tried to kill inflation using the IMF recipe, but failed. Tightening monetary policy and high interest rates were killing the economy,” Isarescu told The Banker in an interview. Isarescu has been running the NBR for the last thirteen years. His key focus in the months ahead will be the ongoing battle against inflation, slowing price rises to single digits by next year. NBR is targeting an inflation rate of 7% by 2005, still well above the eurozone average of 2.2% in 2002. ZF