The decision was made in response to economic activity, family remittances and credit to the private sector showing dynamism, and the fact that inflation remains within the target.
From a statement issued by the Bank of Guatemala:
The Monetary Board (MB), based on a comprehensive analysis of the external and internal situation, after reviewing the Inflation Risks Balance, decided to keep the level of the leading monetary policy interest rate at 3%.
A slowdown in the domestic economy and slow recovery of the external sector has led the Bank of Guatemala to reduce the monetary policy rate from 4% to 3.5% .
From a statement issued by the Bank of Guatemala (BANGUAT):
The Monetary Board, based on a comprehensive analysis of the external and internal situation, after having heard of the Inflation Risks Balance, has decided to reduce the level of leading monetary policy interest rate from 4% to 3.5% .
The amount of inflation expected in 2015 is one of the reasons why the Monetary Board has decided to reduce the interest rate benchmark from 4.5% to 4%, a level not seen since 2005.
From a statement from the Bank of Guatemala:
The Monetary Board, based on a comprehensive analysis of the external and internal situation, after having heard of the Inflation Risks Balance, has decided to reduce the level of leading monetary policy interest rate from 4.50% to 4%.
Considering the main internal and external variables stable, the Bank of Guatemala is keeping the leading policy rate, a major reference for interest rates in the country, unchanged.
From a statement issued by the Bank of Guatemala:
The Monetary Board, based on a comprehensive analysis of the external and internal situation, after having been made aware of the Balance Inflation Risks, has decided to keep the rate of the main monetary policy interest at 4.50% .
The Monetary Board, at its meeting on June 25, decided to lower the monetary policy leader rate from 4.75% to 4.50%
Among the arguments given by the authorities of the Central Bank of Guatemala were "... the behavior of the price of raw materials such as corn and wheat products which are holding a downward trend ... and the rising oil price."
On the domestic side the monetary authority said that "...
Taking into account stable macro economic variables at the national and the global level, the Bank of Guatemala has decided not to change the policy leader rate, the main reference for interest rates in the country.
From a statement issued by the Bank of Guatemala (BANGUAT):
THE MONETARY BOARD KEEPS MONETARY POLICY LEADER INTEREST RATE AT 4.75%
The Bank of Guatemala is keeping at the same level its leading policy rate, which is the main reference for interest rates in the country.
From a statement issued by the Bank of Guatemala:
The Monetary Board, at its meeting held today, decided to keep the leading monetary policy interest rate at 4.75%, based on a comprehensive analysis of the external and internal situation, having been made aware of the Balance of Inflation Risks.
The Bank of Guatemala has lowered the leading policy rate, the reference for interest rates in the domestic financial system, from 5% to 4.75%.
The Monetary Board decided to lower the leading policy rate by 0.25 percentage points based on the external and internal economy, seeing a recovery in global economic activity.
From a press release issued by the Bank of Guatemala:
The Monetary Board of the Bank of Guatemala, at its meeting on September 25, decided to keep the Leader rate at 5.25%.
From a press release issued by the Bank of Guatemala (Banguat):
The Monetary Board, at its meeting today, decided to maintain at 5.25% the monetary policy leader interest rate, based on a comprehensive analysis of the external and internal situation, after being made aware of the Inflation Risk Balance .
The Monetary Board, at its meeting on July 31, decided to keep the level of the monetary policy leading interest rate at 5.25%.
From a press release by the Bank of Guatemala:
The Monetary Board in its meeting today decided to keep the level of the monetary policy leading interest rate at 5.25%, based on comprehensive analysis of the external and internal situation, after finding out about the Balance Inflation Risks.
After having increased in April by 0.25%, the Monetary Board of the Bank of Guatemala decided to keep the leading rate at 5.25%, with an eye on inflation control.
From a press release by the Bank of Guatemala (Banguat):
The Monetary Board in its meeting today, decided to keep the level of 5.25% for the monetary policy leading interest rate, based on comprehensive analysis of the external and internal situation, after being made aware of the Balance of Inflation Risks.
Taking into account inflation expectations, the Monetary Board has increased the leading interest rate by 0.25% , going from 5% to 5.25%.
From a press release issued by the Bank of Guatemala (Banguat):
The Monetary Board in its meeting today, after learning the balance of inflation risks, based on comprehensive analysis of the external and internal situation, has decided to raise the level of the monetary policy leading interest rate by 25 base points, going from 5.00% to 5.25%.
In order to keep inflation in check, the central bank raised the rate to 4.75%.
The improvement experienced by the economy and escalating raw material prices are some of the reasons which has led the Central Bank of Guatemala (Banguat) to raise its interest rate, which controls the growth of prices in the country.
Journalist Dardón Diaz in his article for La Prensa Libre notes that, "when prices rise too much, Banguat has the option of increasing the rate and thus encouraging banks to take their investment capital to short term, this decreases less favorable credits and consumption, which causes prices to decline."
Central America may be directly impacted by the slowdown in the recovery of the world economy.
For the time being, the region's measures of external and internal demand do not seem affected by the threat of lower growth rates for the economies of partner developed countries. Some central banks had raised their expectations but, in view of the risks, they are likely to revise their growth predictions back to original levels between 2.0% and 2.7%.