Czech Central Bank Holds Policy Rate At Record Low
The central bank of the Czech republic on Wednesday kept its benchmark interest rate unchanged after cutting it to a record low at the previous meeting. The decision was in line with economists' expectations.
The Czech National Bank maintained its main two-week repurchase rate at 0.05 percent after slashing it by 20 basis points at the previous rate-setting session, which followed a quarter percent cut at the meeting prior to that.
At today's meeting, the bank also retained the discount rate at 0.05 percent and the Lombard rate at 0.25 percent.
The country's inflation eased to 2.7 percent in November from 3.4 percent in October as the pace of price increases slowed for most of the categories in the consumer basket.
The Czech economy remained in recession in the third quarter. Gross domestic product dropped 0.3 percent sequentially during the three-month period, after falling 0.4 percent in the second quarter and 0.6 percent in the first quarter.