February 4 (SeeNews) - Erste Group expects Serbia's central bank, NBS, to keep its key repo rate unchanged at 3.0% at its monetary policy meeting on February 7, the Austria-based banking group said on Monday.
The interest rates in Serbia should remain unchanged, due to easing inflationary pressure, Erste said in a weekly insights report on the countries in Central and Eastern Europe (CEE).
In January, Erste analysts added they expect NBS to hold the policy rate unchanged for most of 2019, as the expected slowdown of economic growth in the eurozone in 2019 "could impact ECB’s planned hike tempo, shaping a prolonged period of lax local monetary policy."
Serbia's central bank last cut the key repo rate by 0.25 percentage points to 3.25% in March and further down to 3.0% in April to help guide inflation to the target band.
Тhe country's average annual consumer price inflation accelerated to 2.0% in December, from 1.9% in November, the national statistical office said last month.