Bank Negara sets up an intermittent pause

Assessing risk: The Bank Negara Museum and Art Gallery. The central bank has said that it is not quite done with raising interest rates.

IN 2022, stronger economic recovery prospects and upside inflation risk amid the Federal Reserve’s (Fed) aggressive monetary tightening prompted Bank Negara to hike its overnight policy rate (OPR) by 100 basis points (bps) over four consecutive meetings.

This brought Bank Negara’s OPR to 2.75%, normalising it closer to 3% to 3.25% during the period 2011-2019.