Norway's central bank held its policy interest rate unchanged at a 17-year high of 4.50% on Thursday, as unanimously expected by analysts in a Reuters poll, and maintained plans to start cutting borrowing costs in March.

The Reserve Bank’s monetary policy committee is expected to announce another repo rate cut of 25 basis points on Thursday despite a slight uptick in inflation in December, economists say.

The central bank reduced its one-week repo rate to 45% from 47.5% as a cycle of higher borrowing costs bore fruit in cooler price rises.