Czech c.bank vice-governor sees room for two more rate cuts this year

Czech Central Bank Vice-Governor Eva Zamrazilova believes the bank has room for two more interest rate cuts of 25 basis points each this year, she told news outlet e15 in an interview published on Wednesday.The Czech National Bank resumed its interest rate-cutting cycle on in February, lowering the main two-week repo rate by 25 basis points to 3.75% while expressing caution about the pace of further easing, given persistent risks from services price inflation."Even considering that the preliminary inflation estimate for February was in line with expectations at 2.7%, I currently see room for two more rate cuts this year, each of 25 basis points," Zamrazilova told e15 in the interview, which was also published on the central bank website.Zamrazilova said it was not yet clear what the impact on inflation and growth would be from the policies of U.S. President Donald Trump."I have no vision of where rates will be headed in the coming months and years due to developments on the American political scene," she said.Governor Ales Michl said in a Financial Times interview in January that he would propose allocating eventually as much as 5% of the bank's foreign exchange reserves in Bitcoin, but he and the bank have since taken a more cautious approach.Zamrazilova said in February that she did not believe Bitcoin was a suitable asset for central bank reserves.In the interview with e15 she said that if Bitcoin were ever to be included in central bank reserves it would only be in a "fractional" amount."If I were to say that a quarter or half a percent would be an option for me sometime in the future, I am... saying that given the current state of knowledge and common practice of central banking," she said."I cannot say that in three years it cannot be different, that Bitcoin will either be completely excluded from the sights of central banking, or that other central banks will start buying it."