DUBAI - Qatar's central bank said on Thursday it was cutting its key interest rates by 25 basis points, following the U.S. Federal Reserve decision to slash rates for the second time this year.

The Gulf Arab state central bank cut the lending rate to 4.5%, the repo rate to 2.25% and the deposit rate to 2.25%.

Saudi Arabia and the United Arab Emirates earlier announced they were also cutting rates, while Kuwait and Bahrain said they were leaving rates unchanged.

 

 

(Reporting by Nafis Eltahir & Saeed Azhar, writing by Alexander Cornwell Editing by Raissa Kasolowsky) ((Alexander.Cornwell@thomsonreuters.com;))