The National Bank of Serbia (NBS) decided to keep its key policy rate unchanged at 6.50 percent, a press release said on Thursday.
It said that the NBS Executive Board also decided to keep the rates on deposit (5.25%) and lending (7.75%) facilities unchanged.
“The decision was motivated by further dissipation of global inflationary pressures, the downward trajectory of inflation at home and its expected return within the target tolerance band by mid-2024,” it said and added that the next rate-setting meeting is scheduled for February 8.
The NBS said in a separate press release that its gross FX reserves totaled EUR 24,909.1 million at end-December 2023, their highest end-of-month/year level since 2000. “They increased in December by EUR 746.0 mn m-o-m and by EUR 5,493.4 mn y-o-y, covering 166.4% of money supply M1 and 6.7 months’ worth of the country’s imports of goods and services, which is more than twice the level prescribed by the adequacy standard,” the NBS said and added that the December increase in gross FX reserves reflects primarily NBS FX purchases on the domestic FX market.
Source: N1