Central Banks
Norway Holds Rate at 4.5% as Weak Krone Worries Officials
- Norges Bank bucks rich-world trend of monetary easing
- Weakening of the krone risks reviving imported price growth
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Norway’s central bank held borrowing costs steady for an eighth month and shed little light on when easing might begin, given risks to the inflation outlook from a weaker krone.
Norges Bank kept the key deposit rate at 4.5%, the highest since December 2008, as predicted by all economists surveyed by Bloomberg. Weighing the risks, policymakers were “particularly concerned with developments in the krone exchange rate and the potential implications for inflation,” adding that “the krone has depreciated and is weaker than assumed.”