NBS key policy rate kept at 3.5%

At today’s meeting, the NBS Executive Board voted to keep the key policy rate on hold, at 3.5%.

As the NBS announced, in making such decision, the Executive Board had in mind the expected movement in inflation and its factors in the coming period, and the expected effects of past monetary policy easing.

As assessed by the Serbian Statistical Office, in December 2017 inflation measured 3% year-on-year, i.e. the target midpoint. Inflation expectations of the financial and corporate sectors are anchored within the target tolerance band.

The NBS Executive Board expects inflation to continue to move within the target tolerance band of 3.0±1.5%.

It is added that, in the first half of this year, inflation is likely to move below the target midpoint, reflecting the low base for prices of petroleum products and other products which recorded one-off hikes in early 2017. The expected rise in domestic demand will work in the opposite direction.

The next rate-setting meeting will be held on February 8, 2018.

Narodna banka Srbije Beograd

NBS

key policy rate

inflation in Serbia

monetary policy

inflation expectations

target inflation

banking interest rates