It was expected that Norges Bank would for the third time in a row increase the policy rate by 0.5 percentage points at Thursday’s rate meeting, – We must take Norges Bank’s own signals seriously. When they raised the interest rate last August, they said at the same time that there is a need for clearly higher interest rates in the Norwegian economy, chief economist at Handelsbanken Marius Gonsholt Hov told news just before the interest rate decision was announced. Like the central bank in other countries, Norges Bank is trying to curb strong inflation, that is, price growth. The central bank has a goal of trying to keep it at 2 percent. According to figures from Statistics Norway, inflation from August last year to August this year was 6.5 per cent. Norges Bank has signaled that there will be more interest rate increases in the future. There is also high inflation in other countries. On Wednesday, the US central bank increased the key interest rate by 0.75 percentage points. The policy rate there is now in the range of 3 to 3.25 per cent. On Tuesday, Sweden’s central bank increased the policy rate by 1 percentage point to a new policy rate of 1.75 percentage points. Disagreement about increased policy rate Increased policy rate is usually met by the banks, which increase the interest rate on mortgages accordingly. This means that many people get less money to spend on other things. This should slow down price growth. But several economists are concerned that many, rapid interest rate jumps will be too much. They therefore warned Norges Bank against raising interest rates before Thursday’s rate meeting. Jan Ludvig Andreassen, chief economist in the Eika group. Photo: Johan B. Sættem – I think the interest rate hikes are now completely unnecessary. The Norwegian economy is already weakening, and we don’t need to give the economy a pat on the back when it goes downhill, said chief economist Jan Ludvig Andreassen in the Eika group to news on Wednesday. Chief economist Harald Magnus Andreassen at Sparebank1 Markets, on the other hand, believed that the central bank had to stick to its plan to raise interest rates further. – It is a bit too early to take a break in interest rate setting now. The reason is quite simple, that if we don’t slow down the economy, there is a danger that the economy will become more stuck, he said on Wednesday.
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New interest rate jump – key interest rate up 0.5 percentage points – news Norway – Overview of news from different parts of the country
