Finance
Norway central bank keeps rate on hold, eyes cut this year
Published by Global Banking and Finance Review
Posted on August 14, 2025
2 min readLast updated: January 22, 2026
Global Banking and Finance Review
Company
Published by Global Banking and Finance Review
Posted on August 14, 2025
2 min readLast updated: January 22, 2026
Norway's central bank holds rate at 4.25%, plans cuts in 2025. Analysts expect a September cut to 4.00%. Norwegian crown strengthens post-announcement.
By Gwladys Fouche
ARENDAL, Norway (Reuters) -Norway's central bank kept its policy interest rate on hold at 4.25% on Thursday, as unanimously predicted by analysts in a Reuters poll, and reiterated plans to cut borrowing costs later this year.
Norges Bank, in a surprise decision, cut its key interest rate in June by 25 basis points to 4.25%, the first reduction in more than five years, and said there were more cuts to come due to a more benign inflation outlook.
"The economic outlook is uncertain, but if the economy evolves broadly as currently envisaged, the policy rate will be reduced further in the course of 2025," Norges Bank said in a statement on Thursday.
The monetary policy committee in June predicted it would make one or two quarter-point rate cuts in the second half of the year.
"The information we have received so far indicates that the outlook for the Norwegian economy has remained broadly in line with the outlook in June," Governor Ida Wolden Bache said on Thursday.
All 26 analysts in an August 8-11 poll expected rates to stay on hold this week and were unanimous in predicting a cut in September to 4.00%, and most also anticipated a cut in December to end 2025 on 3.75%.
"This is what we, and others expected... We believe the next rate cut will come as soon as September," said Oeystein Doerum, chief economist for the Norwegian Confederation of Enterprises.
The Norwegian crown currency strengthened to 11.87 against the euro by 0823 GMT, from 11.91 just before the announcement.
Before the June cut, the Norwegian policy stance had long contrasted with other Western central banks, most of which started cutting rates last year as growth slowed and inflation eased.
While the job of tackling Norwegian inflation has not been fully completed, the central bank does not want to restrict the economy more than needed.
"It will likely be appropriate to continue with a cautious normalisation of the policy rate ahead," Bache said.
(Reporting by Gwladys Fouche in Arendal, editing by Terje Solsvik and Christina Fincher)
A central bank is a national institution that manages a country's currency, money supply, and interest rates. It also oversees the banking system and implements monetary policy.
Interest rates are the cost of borrowing money or the return on savings, expressed as a percentage. They are influenced by central bank policies and economic conditions.
Monetary policy refers to the actions taken by a central bank to control the money supply and achieve specific economic goals, such as controlling inflation and stabilizing the currency.
Inflation is the rate at which the general level of prices for goods and services rises, eroding purchasing power. It is typically measured as an annual percentage.
Currency is a system of money in general use in a particular country, which can be in the form of coins, paper money, or digital currency.
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