June 10, 2015

In May, consumer prices increased 0.20% over the previous month, which was below the 0.34% rise tallied in March. Annual headline inflation was level at April’s 2.6%. As a result inflation is still hovering well below the lower bound of the Central Bank’s tolerance margin of plus/minus 1.0 percentage points around its target of 4.0%.



At its 27 May monetary policy meeting, the Central Bank decided to leave the policy interest rate unchanged at 3.50%.

The Central Bank sees inflation ending this year between 1.75% and 3.75%, while it expects inflation to close 2016 between 2.5% and 4.5%. FocusEconomics Consensus Forecast panelists foresee inflation at 3.1% at the end of 2015, which is unchanged from last month’s estimate. The panel expects inflation of 3.4% at the end of 2016.