At the Monetary Policy Meeting held in October, the Bank decided on a new forward guidance for the policy rates and clarified its stance to maintain the present levels of the policy rates or, depending on the situation, lower them from the present levels, as long as it is necessary to pay close attention to the possibility that the momentum toward achieving the price stability target will be lost.
At the same time, the decade of exceptionally low interest rates has led to a buildup of household debt, consisting mostly of mortgages. And we are all aware of large increases in house prices in recent years, particularly in some of our largest cities. These financial vulnerabilities have made monetary policy more complicated.