Federal Reserve System

Two US Federal Reserve officials indicated Wednesday that the nation's central bank is on track to tackle inflation, but that it is still too soon to begin lowering interest rates.

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

It did not change the rates on deposit (5.25 pct) and lending facilities (7.75 pct) either, the NBS said.

The interest rate spread between new deposits and loans remained almost unchanged at 5.71% in October as the weighted average interest rate on new deposits increased to 0.46%, while the corresponding rate on new loans remained almost unchanged at 6.17%, the Bank of Greece said on Monday.

A US central bank official has said that more interest rate hikes "will likely be needed" to bring inflation down further, shortly after policymakers lifted rates to the highest level since 2001.

The share of cash in real estate purchases is increasing, as the relevant data show. The sharp increase in lending rates has sharply reduced the demand for mortgages, but at the same time transactions continue to move upward, along with sales prices, which are breaking one record after another.

The U.S. Federal Reserve raised its benchmark lending rate on July 26 to the highest level since 2001 to tackle above-target inflation, and signaled it could hike again later this year amid improving economic prospects.

The U.S. Federal Reserve is widely expected to pause its campaign of interest rate increases on June 14 to give policymakers more time to assess the economic impact of existing hikes and recent banking stresses.

BELGRADE - National Bank of Serbia (NBS) Vice Governor Zeljko Jovic said on Wednesday Serbia had registered a FDI inflow of 1.259 bln euros in the first four months of this year, or 66 pct more y-o-y.

BELGRADE - The National Bank of Serbia (NBS) RTGS and clearing systems processed a total of 18.6 mln payments in the course of 18 business days in April 2023.

According to figures released by the central bank, the RTGS system processed 16.9 mln payments, or 91.2 pct of the total, while the clearing system processed 1.6 mln payments, or 8.8 pct of the total.

U.S. interest rates are likely to rise further, and will need to remain high to effectively tackle inflation, a top Federal Reserve official said on April 20.