Published by Global Banking & Finance Review®
Posted on January 23, 2025
2 min readLast updated: January 27, 2026
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Norway's central bank keeps rates at 4.50% with a planned cut in March. Analysts expect alignment with Western banks as growth slows.
OSLO (Reuters) -Norway's central bank held its policy interest rate unchanged at a 17-year high of 4.50% on Thursday, as unanimously expected by analysts in a Reuters poll, and maintained plans to start cutting borrowing costs in March.
Economists expect Norway's monetary policy to start catching up this year with that of other Western central banks, most of which began cutting rates in 2024 as growth slowed and inflation waned.
"The policy rate will likely be reduced in March," Norges Bank Governor Ida Wolden Bache said in a statement.
It would be Norges Bank's first interest rate cut since May 2020.
The central bank last month said it planned to cut rates three times in 2025 to 3.75% by year-end. It is due to release a revised forecast in March.
In their discussions, Norwegian central bankers expressed concern about the risk of an increase in international trade barriers.
"Higher tariffs will likely dampen global growth, but the implications for price prospects in Norway are uncertain," the bank said in the statement.
The Norwegian crown traded largely unchanged at 11.74 against the euro at 0906 GMT.
All but one of the 25 analysts in the Reuters Jan. 13-20 poll predicted that a quarter-percentage point rate cut to 4.25% will be announced in March, while a single participant anticipated a 0.50-point cut to 4.00%.
(Reporting by Gwladys Fouche, editing by Terje Solsvik)
The article discusses Norway's central bank holding its interest rate at 4.50% and plans to cut it in March.
The rate cut aligns with other Western central banks' policies as growth slows and inflation wanes.
The bank expressed concerns about the potential impact of increased international trade barriers.
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