The Ukrainian National Bank (NBU) decided on Friday to reduce the key interest rate by 0.5 percentage point to 7.0 percent starting from June 10, the bank's press service said.

This is the first time for the central bank to cut interest rates this year. The previous one was in March 2012 when the interest rate was lowered by 0.25 point.

Since the beginning of the year, the inflation rate in Ukraine has risen 0.2 percent.

According to the government's forecast, the country's inflation will rise 4.8 percent in 2013, compared with a 0.2-percent deflation last year.