Six of the seven board members of the Czech National Bank voted on Wednesday to keep the benchmark rate unchanged at 2 percent, bank governor Jiří Rusnok told a news conference.
The central bank had voted unanimously in May to raise borrowing costs for an eighth time in two years. At the policy-setting meeting on Wednesday, one board member voted to raise interest rates by a quarter of a percentage point.
The bank’s latest outlook assumes no policy change for a year. Although inflation unexpectedly accelerated in May towards the top of its 1-3 percent tolerance band, Rusnok said the jump had been driven mainly by volatile food prices and so there was no reason to react.
