Norway’s central bank board hasn’t raised or lowered the country’s key lending rate since March 2012, and its members didn’t make any changes this week either. Meeting for the first time since June, the board decided to keep the rate at its historically low level of 1.5 percent.
That’s good news for borrowers as it eases the bite of Norway’s high real estate prices, but bad news for savers who earn very little on their deposits. Central bank boss Øystein Olsen indicated that the rates will stay low for quite some time.
Olsen, governor of Norges Bank (The Bank of Norway), said the outlook for inflation and production hasn’t changed much since June. He said that a moderate economic upturn was continuing among Norway’s trading partners, but growth rates are slightly weaker than previously expected.
Analyses used by the bank board thus indicate that the key lending rate will remain at today’s level through next year, Olsen said, and thereafter may rise gradually.
newsinenglish.no staff
