The influence of the monetary policy interest rate, inflation and exchange rate on the consumer credit benchmark in romania during the covid-19 crisis

The banking system represents the most important component of the financial system, "heart of the economy", its role being identified, mainly, in two plans. Thus, first of all, it is vital for maintaining a good functioning of the economy, the National Bank of Romania having prerogatives in ensuring price stability. Secondly, credit institutions, through their function as financial intermediaries, ensure a real process of financing the needs registered by the economic environment. Maintaining price stability in difficult economic conditions, of systemic shock, caused by the COVID-19 pandemic, required the adoption of measures by the National Bank of Romania to mitigate the negative effects. One of the measures adopted by the central bank during the pandemic was the reduction of the policy interest rate by 0.5 pp. In this context, from the research carried out on the basis of an econometric analysis, it emerged that the change in the consumer credit benchmark is also influenced by the positive or negative evolution of other economic factors, such as the monetary policy interest rate, the variation of the consumer price index and the fluctuation of the exchange rate