According to the National Bank, in the first quarter of 2026, excess liquidity was growing and the volume of loans in lei was increasing. Banks were actively lending to businesses and households, and the weighted average interest rate on new lei loans went down.
At the same time, there was an 11.3% increase in banks’ net profit (up to 1.16 billion lei) and active lending to business and households. Interest on loans became the main source of income (over 3 billion lei).
In the first quarter of 2026, excess liquidity amounted to 5.2 billion lei, increasing by 0.7 billion lei compared to the fourth quarter of 2025. During this period, the “broad money” in Moldova (monetary aggregate M3) reached a historical maximum, increasing by almost 14% – up to 196,275.95 million MDL in March 2026, compared to 194,430.19 million MDL in February. At that, the main contribution was made, according to the NBM data, by the volume of deposits.
The central bank attributed this growth of money supply in the economy at the beginning of the year to the impact of earlier monetary policy easing measures, before the prime rate increase. In the first quarter, the weighted average interest rate on loans amounted to 9.06%, down 0.06 percentage points, and on deposits to 5.11%, up 0.03 percentage points compared to the fourth quarter of 2025.
