Czech central bank keeps interest rate steady at 0.5%

    The Czech National Bank (CNB) maintained its key interest rates unchanged, as expected.
    The CNB said in a statement that it's board had decided to keep the two-week repo rate at 0.5 percent, the discount rate at 0.25 percent and the Lombard rate at 1.5 percent.
    The bank cut the repo rate, the rate paid on commercial banks' excess liquidity, to a record low 0.5 percent in June as the economy is hit by the slowdown in Europe along with the Czech government's belt-tightening.
    The Czech economy contracted by 0.8 percent in the first quarter from the previous quarter and the country's inflation rate rose to 3.5 percent in June from 3.2 percent the previous month. 


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