Economics
Hungary Cuts Rates as Central Bank Warns on Policy Tools
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Hungarian policy makers cut the main interest rate for a sixth month, helping to ease investor uncertainty over a change in the central bank’s leadership with a warning on the use of new monetary-policy tools.
The Magyar Nemzeti Bank lowered the two-week deposit rate by a quarter-point to 5.5 percent, the lowest since 2010 and still the European Union’s highest, matching the forecast of 27 of 28 economists in a Bloomberg survey. One saw no change. Widening the bank’s “unconventional” policy toolkit is only useful in the event of “acute financial-market turmoil,” the Monetary Council said in a statement after the announcement.