Norway's central bank said Thursday that its executive board decided to keep the key policy rate unchanged at 0.50 percent as there was a continued need for an expansionary monetary policy in the Nordic country.

"The outlook and the balance of risks for the Norwegian economy do not appear to have changed substantially since the September Report. The Executive Board therefore decided to keep the key policy rate unchanged," Oystein Olsen, governor of Norges Bank, was quoted as saying in a statement.

In its monetary policy report published on Sept. 21, the Executive Board's assessment was that an expansionary monetary policy was still needed as capacity utilisation in the economy was assessed to be below a normal level and inflation was expected to remain below 2.5 percent in the coming years.

The executive board's latest assessment was that developments so far have been broadly in line with the picture presented in the September report and new information does not provide a basis for changing its assessment of growth in the economy, the Norwegian central bank said.

The improvement in the labour market appears to be continuing, it said, adding that inflation has been slightly lower than projected while the krone exchange rate is somewhat weaker than projected.

The Norwegian central bank's next rate decision will be announced on Dec. 14.