September 11 (SeeNews) - Serbia’s central bank said on Tuesday it has decided to keep its key repo rate unchanged at 9.75%.
The central bank last changed the repo rate on August 28, raising it by 0.25 percentage points as core inflation in August was estimated at 3.0% on an annual basis, indicating that end-year inflation rate could reach 7.4%. Serbia's statistics board is expected to release August inflation data around the middle of September.
The central bank targets core inflation of between 4.0% and 8.0% for this year. Core inflation covers the prices that are not administered by the government.
Serbia's July consumer price index (CPI) fell by 0.2% month-on-month after increasing by 0.4% in June. Year-on-year, CPI inflation accelerated to 4.2% in July from 4.0% in the previous month. Cumulative inflation for the first seven months of the year was 3.4%.
The next meeting of the central bank's monetary policy committee is scheduled for September 28, the bank said in a statement.