NBS keeps key policy rate on hold at 6.5 pct

BELGRADE - The National Bank of Serbia (NBS) Executive Board decided on Friday to keep the key policy rate on hold at 6.50 pct.

The rates on deposit (5.25 pct) and lending (7.75 pct) facilities also remained unchanged.

"The Board's decision was motivated primarily by the medium-term inflation projection and the expected movement of key inflation factors, and by the still elevated, though subsiding, global inflationary pressures, and heightened uncertainty over the global prices of energy and other primary commodities.

Moreover, the effects of past monetary tightening have largely spilled over to the cost and volume of private sector borrowing, while financing conditions have stabilised since the key policy rate was raised last time, in July 2023," the NBS said in a statement.

"The Board also had in mind the continuing deceleration of global inflation,...