Qatar central bank raises deposit rate 25 bps, keeps others unchanged

Qatar’s central bank said on Thursday it was raising its overnight deposit rate by 25 basis points to 1.50 percent, after the US Federal Reserve raised rates by the same margin.

However, the Qatari central bank kept its overnight lending rate unchanged at 5 percent and its repo rate, used to lend money to banks, flat at 2.25 percent.

The decision not to raise the repo rate is expected to limit upward pressure on Qatari banks’ funding costs at a time when their access to funds has been hurt by other Gulf states’ sanctions against Doha.