PRAGUE: Czech central bank board member Ales Michl will vote to keep interest rates steady at the upcoming policy meeting next month, he said in a presentation released on the central bank website on Thursday.
The bank left rates flat at its previous meeting on Sept 25 but the bank left the door open to further discussion of possible tightening next month despite policy loosening by other central banks.
The main two-week repo rate stands at 2.0%. The board next meets on Nov. 7.
"I will give preference to stability of interest rates at our monetary policy meeting in November. After that, we could have a move in either direction, a cut or a hike," he said in remarks for a seminar in Washington.
A hike would come into play if the industrial sector recovers and models project that inflation would stay above target for an extended period, he said. A cut could come in case of a manufacturing recession.
"What changed since our last hike is the slope of the yield curve which has become more steeply negative - spreads between 5-year and 1-year market rate. It could signal a potential ordinary recession," he said.