Central Bank Meeting on 10th July 2014

BNM is expected to announce by next Thursday (10 July 2014) whether Malaysia’s first interest-rate hike in two years will happen in July 2014 or later.

The consensus view has been that Bank Negara would raise the country’s benchmark overnight policy rate (OPR) by at least 25 basis points (bps) from the current 3.0% to 3.25% before year-end (2014).

There are only three meetings left for the year ended 2014 for Bank Negara’s Monetary Policy Committee (MPC) to set the direction of the country’s interest rates. After July 10 2014, the next two meetings will be on Sept 18 and Nov 6 2014.

The OPR, which is essentially the rate at which banks lend to each other, has wide implication on the country’s economy. Changes in the OPR tend to be passed on to consumers through changes in the base lending rate, or BLR, of commercial banks and financial institutions.