Norway’s central bank decided against raising its key policy rate by another quarter-point on Thursday. Even though interest rates are still expected to rise, the bank’s monetary policy committee didn’t think the time was right just now.
“As we see it, the policy rate will most probably be raised in June,” stated new central bank chief Ida Wolden Bache. It will, in the meantime, remain at its current, still-low level of 0.75 percent.
Analysts still expect as many as seven interest rate hikes over the next two years. “Most households will likely see their mortgage rates double in comparison to what they were a few years ago,” Mads Johannesen, an economist at Nordnet, told state broadcaster NRK. Consumers thus need to brace for the classic “triple whammy,” of rising interest rates, rising energy prices and rising prices for consumer goods.
NewsinEnglish.no staff