KYIV, March 28 – Most of the members of the Monetary Policy Committee (MPC) of the National Bank of Ukraine (NBU), at a meeting on March 15, believe that the regulator may switch to key policy rate reductions earlier than envisaged in its January macroeconomic forecast, subject to a slowdown in inflation, and three out of 11 members said that the NBU may launch a cycle of key policy rate cuts as soon as the autumn or even earlier, the NBU press service reported on Monday.

"Having considered the balance of risks, the MPC members unanimously spoke in favor of keeping the key policy rate at 25%... Going forward, the MPC members expect the NBU to continue to pursue a fairly tight monetary policy, but most of them believe that, if there is a sustained slowdown in inflation, a cycle of key policy rate cuts may begin earlier than the January macroeconomic forecast predicted," the NBU said in the press release.