NBU keeps discount rate at 15.5%

The Board of the National Bank of Ukraine (NBU) has decided to keep the discount rate at 15.5%.

This is announced in the NBU's statement, Ukrainian News Agency reports.

In the first months of the year, inflation grew quite close to the trajectory of the NBU's previous macro forecast and in March reached 14.6% y/y.

Such dynamics were due to the residual effects of last year's poor harvests, a further increase in prices for excisable products, as well as the influence of fundamental factors, in particular, from the increase in enterprises' costs for energy resources and labor costs and stable consumer demand.

Further growth in services inflation is also an indicator of still significant domestic price pressure.

At the same time, the monthly dynamics of inflation, adjusted for seasonality, indicate signs of weakening price pressure.

This was facilitated, in particular, by the NBU's measures to maintain the stability of the foreign exchange market and control inflation expectations.

The March survey showed a further improvement in household expectations, and the statistics of Internet search queries showed a decrease in the population's attention to the topic of inflation from peak levels at the beginning of the year.

In contrast, the inflation expectations of enterprises and banks deteriorated somewhat.

In general, despite the increase in the annual inflation rate, the inflation expectations of economic agents remain relatively stable.

As Ukrainian News Agency earlier reported, in March 2021 the NBU raised the discount rate to 6.5%, in April - to 7%, in July - to 8%, in September - to 8.5%, in December - to 9%, in January 2022 - to 10%, in June 2022 - to 25%.

In July 2023, the NBU reduced the discount rate from 25% to 22%, in September - to 20%, in October - to 16%, in December - to 15%, in March 2024 - to 14.5%, in April - to 13.5%, in June - to 13%, in December 2024 it increased to 13.5%, in January 2025 - to 14.5%, in March - to 15.5%.

At the same time, the Board of Directors of the Bank of russia on March 21 decided to maintain the key rate at 21.00% per annum.

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