The HNB Council discussed recent economic and monetary trends, and adopted a report on the financial state of affairs, price stability and the implementation of monetary policy measures in the second half of 2017.
The start of Q2 also saw a continuation of employment growth and of unemployment decrease, the press release said, adding that the annual inflation rate went up from 1.1% in March to 1.3% in April, mainly due to higher oil product prices.
The HNB continued to implement an expansionary monetary policy, maintaining a very high liquidity of the domestic financial market. Lending growth continued to accelerate, to 3.2% annually, while interest rates on newly-approved loans were stable on average, the press release said.
The domestic sectors' net foreign debt in Q1 2018 went up the same as in Q 1 2017.