Monetary Policy Report, December 2018

Economic activity is strong and the conditions are good for inflation to remain close to the inflation target in the period ahead. As inflation and inflation expectations have become established at around 2 per cent, the need for a highly expansionary monetary policy has decreased slightly. The Executive Board has therefore decided to raise the repo rate from −0.50 per cent to −0.25 per cent. The forecast for the repo rate indicates that the next rate rise will probably occur during the second half of 2019. With a repo rate of −0.25 per cent, monetary policy is still expansionary and will thereby continue to support economic activity.