Kazakhstan Cuts Rate, Signals More Easing as Inflation Slows
- Key rate cut to 12.5%; all but one analyst forecast no change
- Central bank says it may cut base rate again before year-end
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Kazakhstan’s central bank unexpectedly cut its key interest rate and signaled the potential for more monetary easing after a stronger tenge helped shore up confidence among policy makers that a surge in price growth to an eight-year high is over.
Rate setters reduced the base rate, set as the new benchmark after the central bank abandoned its currency peg a year ago, to 12.5 percent from 13 percent in their third cut this year, they said in a statement on Monday. Six of seven economists surveyed by Bloomberg forecast no change, with one seeing a fall to 12 percent.