STOCKHOLM, Jan. 7 (Xinhua) -- Denmark's central bank Nationalbanken decided Thursday to cut its key lending rate by 0.05 percentage point to 1.15 percent in order to keep its currency stable against the euro, according to reports reaching here from Copenhagen.

    At the same time the Nationalbanken also decided to lower its rate of interest on certificates of deposit by 0.05 percentage point to 0.90 percent and its current-account rate is reduced by 0.05 percentage point to 0.80 percent. The discount rate is maintained at 1.0 percent.

    The reductions will have effect as from Jan. 8, 2010, the Nationalbanken said in a statement.

    Denmark is one of the European Union members, but not part of the 16-country euro zone. The Nationalbanken always follows the European Central Bank to raise or decrease its interest rate, but not this time.

    "The interest-rate reduction is a consequence of purchases of foreign exchange in the market. The money-market rates in euro are very low and the spread to the equivalent Danish rates tends to strengthen the Danish krone," said the Nationalbanken.

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