NBU / facebook.com/NationalBankOfUkraine
The Board of the National Bank of Ukraine (NBU) has decided to lower the refinancing rate by 3 percentage points as of April 22, to 19% from 22% per annum, which is in effect since September 25, 2015.
The NBU says this decision to liberalize monetary policy was made due to the continuing trend of decreasing consumer inflation, which in the first quarter of this year slowed to 1.6%, being even lower than the regulator's expectations.
The NBU also decided to improve the operational framework of monetary policy, and now the interest rate on key monetary tools will be set on par with the refinancing rate.
As UNIAN reported earlier, the NBU on March 3 decided to keep the refinancing rate at 22% per annum.
On March 4, 2015, the NBU's refinancing rate was raised to the historic maximum level for the Ukrainian banking system — 30% from 19.5% per annum that was effective previously.
On August 28, the NBU cut its refinancing rate to 27%, and on September 25, it was lowered to 22% per annum. The regulator said a further decrease was possible if the market continued seeing stability.