Zeti, deputy Bank Negara governors Datuk Muhammad Ibrahim (left) and Datuk Nor Shamsiah Mohd Yunus at the press conference on the Bank Negara annual report 2013 and Financial Stability & Payment report 2013 on Wednesday.
WHEN Bank Negara hosted a media briefing on Wednesday for the release of its 2013 annual report, there was naturally quite a number of overnight policy rate (OPR)-centric questions. After all, the central bank has kept the OPR at 3% since May 2011. The OPR is the benchmark rate to which commercial banks refer to price their rates on deposits and loans.
In the second half of last year, a number of economists expected the central bank to hike the OPR by 25 basis points to 3.25% in the first half of this year against the backdrop of rising inflation due to the 20-sen hike in RON95 petrol and diesel prices in early September, the abolishment of the sugar subsidy in late-October and the hike in electricity tariffs from Jan 1 this year.
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