{"id":145417,"date":"2025-08-14T15:35:18","date_gmt":"2025-08-14T15:35:18","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/145417\/"},"modified":"2025-08-14T15:35:18","modified_gmt":"2025-08-14T15:35:18","slug":"norway-holds-key-rate-keeps-prospect-of-more-easing-in-2025","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/145417\/","title":{"rendered":"Norway Holds Key Rate, Keeps Prospect of More Easing in 2025"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>        <img fetchpriority=\"high\" decoding=\"async\" src=\"data:image\/gif;base64,R0lGODlhAQABAIAAAAAAAP\/\/\/ywAAAAAAQABAAACAUwAOw==\" alt=\"Norges Bank governor Ida Wolden Bache\" loading=\"eager\" height=\"640\" width=\"960\" class=\"yf-1gfnohs loader\"\/> Norges Bank governor Ida Wolden Bache       <\/p>\n<p class=\"yf-1090901\">(Bloomberg) &#8212; Norway\u2019s central bank kept borrowing costs steady after a surprise cut in June and reiterated its plan to extend \u201ccautious\u201d easing later this year.<\/p>\n<p class=\"yf-1090901\">Norges Bank kept the key deposit rate at 4.25% on Thursday \u2014 matching the forecast of all economists surveyed by Bloomberg. It repeated that the key rate would be lowered further \u201cin the course of 2025,\u201d with no new projections or interest-rate outlook produced for the interim meeting.<\/p>\n<p>       Shop Top Mortgage Rates   <\/p>\n<p>   Powered by Money.com &#8211; Yahoo may earn commission from the links above. <\/p>\n<p class=\"yf-1090901\">Most Read from Bloomberg<\/p>\n<p>         <img decoding=\"async\" src=\"data:image\/gif;base64,R0lGODlhAQABAIAAAAAAAP\/\/\/ywAAAAAAQABAAACAUwAOw==\" alt=\" \" loading=\"lazy\" height=\"672\" width=\"960\" class=\"yf-1gfnohs loader\"\/>         <\/p>\n<p class=\"yf-1090901\">\u201cWith a cautious normalization of the policy rate we will get inflation back to target without causing a large increase in unemployment,\u201d Governor Ida Wolden Bache said in an interview in Arendal, southern Norway.<\/p>\n<p class=\"yf-1090901\">Norges Bank has aligned more with its developed-world peers since June, when it pivoted earlier than expected to reducing restraint on the energy-exporting economy from the highest level in more than 16 years.<\/p>\n<p class=\"yf-1090901\">With core inflation remaining stubbornly high and the krone giving up recent gains, the bar was seen as too high for Norwegian officials to resume rate reductions already this month. The central bank said recent developments were in line with its outlook in June when policymakers predicted as many as two more rate cuts this year and further easing to a terminal level of 3% \u201ctowards the end of 2028.\u201d<\/p>\n<p class=\"yf-1090901\">\u201cAlthough September remains the main expectation, it is not a done deal,\u201d Karine Alsvik Nelson, senior economist in Norway at Svenska Handelsbanken AB, said in a note. \u201cWe expect the key policy rate to be cut in September, but remain doubtful about the likelihood of two more cuts this year.\u201d<\/p>\n<p class=\"yf-1090901\">The krone, the third-worst performer over the last month among G-10 currencies, erased most of its earlier gains, trading about 0.1% higher at 11.9195 versus the euro at 1:07 p.m. in Oslo.<\/p>\n<p class=\"yf-1090901\">The currency \u201chas been slightly on the weak side since our June forecast,\u201d Wolden Bache said. \u201cWe had expected some of that because the interest rate decision was surprising, and we also saw a further depreciation coinciding with the decline in the oil price.\u201d<\/p>\n<p class=\"yf-1090901\">Traders in overnight swaps now price in 23 basis points of rate cuts at September\u2019s meeting, with 44 basis points of loosening seen by year-end.<\/p>\n<p class=\"yf-1090901\">Norway\u2019s move comes as the Riksbank in neighboring Sweden is also seen keeping rates on hold next week while signaling more cutting to come. The Bank of England decreased its benchmark rate by 25 basis points to 4% this month, while the European Central Bank is expected to wait until at least December to deliver another reduction.<\/p>\n<p> Story Continues <\/p>\n<p class=\"yf-1090901\">\u201cThe committee continues to emphasize the \u2018cautious normalization of monetary policy,\u2019 citing both upside and downside risks to the rate path and the high level of uncertainty,\u201d Rory Fennessy, Senior Economist with Oxford Economics, said in an emailed comment. \u201cIf the economy is shown to have held up stronger than expected in the second quarter, a pause in September becomes more likely.\u201d<\/p>\n<p class=\"yf-1090901\">&#8211;With assistance from Joel Rinneby, Harumi Ichikura, Stephen Treloar and Kari Lundgren.<\/p>\n<p class=\"yf-1090901\">(Updates with comments from governor, analyst from third paragraph.)<\/p>\n<p class=\"yf-1090901\">Most Read from Bloomberg Businessweek<\/p>\n<p class=\"yf-1090901\">\u00a92025 Bloomberg L.P.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Norges Bank governor Ida Wolden Bache (Bloomberg) &#8212; Norway\u2019s central bank kept borrowing costs steady after a surprise&hellip;\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":145418,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[12],"tags":[3638,64,22703,86151,79,86149,2310,86148,18242,86152,86150,67,132,68],"class_list":{"0":"post-145417","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-economy","8":"tag-bloomberg","9":"tag-business","10":"tag-central-bank","11":"tag-deposit-rate","12":"tag-economy","13":"tag-ida-wolden-bache","14":"tag-interest-rate-outlook","15":"tag-norges-bank","16":"tag-norway","17":"tag-rate-reductions","18":"tag-southern-norway","19":"tag-united-states","20":"tag-unitedstates","21":"tag-us"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/pubeurope.com\/@us\/115027858365418493","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/145417","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=145417"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/145417\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/145418"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=145417"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=145417"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=145417"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}