DUBAI- Qatar's central bank cut its key interest rates on Monday, following the U.S. Federal Reserve which slashed rates a day earlier to near zero to shore up the U.S. economy as the coronavirus pandemic spreads worldwide.

Qatar's central bank cut its deposit rate by 50 basis points (bps) to 1%, its lending rate by 100 bps to 2.5% and its repo rate by 50 bps to 1%, it said on its website.

(Reporting by Saeed Azhar; Writing by Yousef Saba; Editing by Alex Richardson) ((Yousef.Saba@thomsonreuters.com; +971562166204))