Norges Bank keeps key rate at 4% as expected
By Michele Maatouk
Date: Thursday 22 Jan 2026
(Sharecast News) - Norges Bank kept its key rate at 4% on Thursday, as widely expected, for the third meeting in a row.
Norway's central bank said in a statement that if the economy evolves broadly as expected, the policy rate will be reduced further in the course of the year. However, the Bank indicated that it was in no rush to cut rates.
"In response to the inflation surge in 2022, we raised the policy rate sharply and rapidly, and in recent years the tightening of monetary policy has contributed to cooling down the Norwegian economy and to dampening inflation. Last year, we began a cautious normalisation of monetary policy and reduced the policy rate from 4.5% to 4%," it said.
"We are not in a hurry to reduce the policy rate further. The job of tackling inflation has not been fully completed, and if the policy rate is lowered too quickly, inflation could remain above target for too long. On the other hand, we do not want to restrain the economy more than needed."
TD Securities said: "Though this meeting was not accompanied by a monetary policy report and forecasts were not updated, the Committee's current assessment is that the interest rate outlook 'has not changed materially since December'.
"As such, the policy rate is still expected to be reduced throughout the course of the year with our calls for March and September cuts remaining appropriate."
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