Central bank leaves interest rates at all-time low, continues forex interventions

The central bank board on Tuesday voted to keep interest rates at an all-time low and continue forex interventions designed to keep the crown’s exchange rate close to 27 crowns to the euro. The bank has sold 200 billion crowns ($9.94 billion) since the start of interventions two weeks ago, with the crown now trading at around 27.62 to the euro. Interest rates have been at a historic low for over a year with the basic rate at 0.05 percent. The central bank forecasts that GDP will rise by 2.1 percent in 2014 with the help of interventions and inflation will return to the bank's 2 percent target, from below 1 percent seen in October.