Denmark's central bank Nationalbank announced on Thursday that it had decided to decrease its lending rate and the rate of interest on certificates by 0.75 percentage point to 4.25 percent, according to reports reaching here from Copenhagen.

The discount rate and the interest rate on the banks' current accounts with the National bank are lowered by 0.5 percent to 3.5 percent. The reduction will have effect as from Dec. 5, 2008, the Nationalbank said in a statement.

The interest rate reduction is a consequence of the lowering by 0.75 percent to 2.5 percent in the European Central Bank's rate on the main refinancing operations, the statement added.

Denmark is one of the European Union member, but not part of the 15-country euro zone. The Nationalbank always follows the European Central Bank to raise or decrease its key rates.

(Xinhua News agency December 5, 2008)