Czech central banker Benda: will debate normalising policy in H2

PRAGUE: The Czech National Bank may discuss when to raise interest rates in the second half of the year, board member Vojtech Benda said on Thursday.

The central bank has kept its main two-week repo rate at 0.25% since May, after cutting by 200 basis points in the spring after the coronavirus pandemic hit.

"Since we still expect a Nike-shaped or U-shaped recovery of the economy this year, hoping the vaccination and everything will go well, then we will probably discuss in the second half of the year when we start to normalise our monetary policy," Benda said on the Central & Eastern European Forum 2021 online conference.

"But of course, the situation is unpredictable, so we are even ready to react in opposite direction if we see that the economy, and the world economy, is facing the worst pandemic scenario," he said.