OSLO (dpa-AFX) – Norway’s central bank is continuing its fight against high inflation with a significant interest rate hike. The key interest rate will rise by 0.5 percentage points to 3.75 percent, as the Norges Bank announced on Thursday in Oslo after its interest rate meeting. Most analysts had expected a smaller increase of 0.25 points, but many observers had also considered an increase of the current magnitude to be possible. The Norwegian krone appreciated after the dollar-euro decision.
The central bank held out the prospect of another interest rate hike for August and raised its medium-term interest rate projections. with the stricter one monetary policy the currency watchdogs brace themselves against the high inflation. Most recently, inflation stopped falling and actually rose again. Core inflation excluding energy and food had even climbed to a record high. In the opinion of many economists, core inflation usually reflects the price trend better than overall inflation./bgf/jsl/stk