Norwegian central bank keeps key policy rate at 1.5%

The Norwegian central bank, Norges Bank, announced on Thursday that its executive board has decided to keep the key policy rate unchanged at 1.5 percent.
"The outlook for inflation and output is little changed since June. The key policy rate has therefore been left unchanged," Oeystein Olsen, governor of the Norwegian central bank, said in a statement.
The moderate economic recovery is continuing among Norway's trading partner countries, but growth prospects are somewhat weaker than previously envisaged, said the statement.
Policy rates have been lowered in the euro area and Sweden. The expected increase in policy rates abroad has been pushed further out, according to the statement issued by the central bank on Thursday.
In Norway, consumer prices and output increased to a somewhat further extent than projected in the June Report, but much of the increase likely reflects temporary conditions, said the statement.
In August, the enterprises in Norges Bank's regional network reported continued moderate growth in production and capacity utilization may edge down in the coming year, but is projected to rise gradually thereafter to close to a normal level.
Inflation is projected to run somewhat below, but close to 2.5 percent in the years ahead, the central bank governing body observed.
"The analyses in the Monetary Policy Report presented today imply that the key policy rate will remain at the present level to the end of 2015, rising gradually thereafter," said Olsen.
At its meeting, the Executive Board decided that the key policy rate should be in the interval 1 percent to 2 percent in the period to the publication of the next Report on Dec. 11, 2014, unless the Norwegian economy is exposed to new major shocks, said the Norwegian central bank governor.