Norges Bank decided to keep its policy rate at 4.25 percent on Thursday, but the Norwegian central bank’s chief Ida Wolden Bache expects it to be further reduced later this year. It all depends, though, on whether Norway’s inflation rate comes down as well.
“The work to bring down inflation isn’t finished yet,” Bache said during the bank’s annual press conference in the coastal town of Arendal. That’s where top politicians, state officials and leaders of businesses and organizations have gathered this week for the annual late-summer event called Arendalsuka.
The central bank lowered Norway’s policy rate by a quarter-point in June but it remains relatively high compared to other countries. Bache and her colleagues want the country’s inflation rate to come down to around 2 percent, but it’s currently hovering around 3.5 percent and this week came news that food prices are still rising.
Bache sent a signal that interest rates are not likely to rise as well, rather that she and her colleagues will continue a “careful normalization” of the policy rate aimed at brining it down.
NewsinEnglish.no staff
