The Governor of the Central Bank, Christodoulos Christodoulou, is to announce the decision of the Central Bank’s Monetary Policy Committee over interest rates.

According to indications, the interest rate policy is not expected to change. Besides, Mr., Christodoulou has stated that the Central Bank must be “particularly careful”, as during the first nine months of 2002 the rate of inflation has reached 2.8%, while current account deficit remains considerably large.

The Central Bank people – who are in favour of today’s interest rate levels – support that it is advisable for the interest rates to remain unchanged taking into account the slowdown of economic activity and the need to restrain the domestic inflationary pressures. It is also worth taking into account that within the international environment, the European Central Bank remains stable to its monetary policy.

Central Bank’s prime interest rates - that is Lombard and Overnight Deposit Facility rates – have reached 5.5% and 2.5% respectively. Then, the reference price for the annual growth rate of bank credits for 2002 remains unchanged at 11%.