March 15 (SeeNews) - Macedonia's central bank, NBRM, said on Wednesday it decided to keep the coupon rate of its bills at 3.25%.
Earlier on Wednesday, NBRM sold 30 billion denars ($518.5 million/488.1 million euro) of 28-day central bank (CB) bills, in line with target. The coupon rate of the CB bills serves as Macedonia's benchmark interest rate.
NBRM said in a statement that its monetary policy committee has also decided to increase the supply of CB bills at the auction to 30 billion denars from 25 billion denars at a meeting held on Tuesday due to the increased liquidity of the banking system.
Macedonia's economy expanded by an estimated 2.4% the last quarter of 2016, compared with the previous quarter, NBRM said. Real economic growth in 2016 was also 2.4%, very close to the NBRM projection of a 2.3% increase.
In February, Macedonia's consumer prices ticked up 0.2% year-on-year in February, slowing down from a 0.6% rise in January.
NBRM cut the benchmark interest rate three times at three consecutive auctions of CB bills since December, saying that the cuts point to economic stability. In December, the coupon rate was lowered from 4% to 3.75%, in January - to 3.50% and in February - to 3.25%.
At its meeting on Tuesday the monetary policy committee estimated the state of the Macedonian economy as stable but also said that the downside risks from the ongoing political crisis are still present.
The next auction of CB bills will be held on April 12.