Africa-Press – Angola. Angola’s Net International Reserves (RIL), until the end of last October, stood at 14.24 billion US dollars, which corresponds to covering around seven months of imports of goods and services for the country, according to the National Bank of Angola (BNA).
When presenting the decisions taken from the 114th meeting of the Monetary Policy Committee (CPM), held on the 20th and 21st of this month, in Luanda, the governor of the BNA, Manuel Tiago Dias, also said that, in the first 10 months of 2023 , the surplus balance of the goods account stood at US$16.83 billion, compared to US$29.16 billion recorded in the same period of the previous year.
In the period under analysis, these data represented a reduction of 42.27% (12.33 billion dollars), reflecting the drop in export revenues of 32.12% (USD 13.92 billion).
As a consequence of this, the BNA manager stated that the supply of currency in the foreign exchange market stood at USD 8.43 billion, a reduction of 28.66%, compared to the amount traded in the same period last year.
In the commodity markets, he said that average oil prices had reduced, due to factors linked to increased supply, highlighting the increase in Russian exports, as well as the expectation of lower demand, as a result of the maintenance of restrictive monetary policies by the Banks. Central and uncertainties surrounding the Chinese economy.
Citing the recent IMF report, Manuel Tiago Dias said that the prospects for a slowdown in the world economy, in 2023 and 2024, remain explained, in particular, by the performance of advanced and emerging economies.
In relation to global inflation, he recalled that it remains high, a fact that forces the main Central Banks to remain cautious about reversing their restrictive stance in conducting monetary policy.
At a national level, monthly inflation in October stood at 2.15%, mainly explained by the contribution of the Food and Non-Alcoholic Beverages class (1.42 percentage points), according to price data released by the Institute National Statistics Institute (INE).
According to INE, the biggest price changes were seen in the categories of Health (2.66%), Transport (2.54%), Food and Non-Alcoholic Beverages (2.42%), Clothing and Footwear (2.31% ).
In relation to contributions by products, 24 of the 732 products in the National Consumer Price Index (IPCN) matrix contributed 1.18 percentage points to total inflation, corresponding to 54.67%, with emphasis on granulated white sugar (0 .15 percentage points), medium and long grain rice (0.24 percentage points), soybean oil (0.11 percentage points) and fresh or frozen horse mackerel (0.07 percentage points). In year-on-year terms, the inflation rate stood at 16.58%.
Given the trajectory of inflation, it is recommended that the restrictive direction of monetary policy be maintained, with a view to aligning it with the medium-term objective, a situation that will continue to be monitored by the BNA and that could lead to the taking of additional measures, if necessary. necessary.
Money market
In this area, the Monetary Base in national currency, an operational variable of monetary policy, registered an expansion of 2.29% in October, while the accumulated and year-on-year variations stood at 16.96% and 22.52%, respectively.
According to the BNA, the accumulated expansion of the Monetary Base was driven, fundamentally, by the expansionist effect of the Tax Execution.
In turn, the monetary aggregate M2 in national currency, an intermediate variable of monetary policy, registered an expansion of 1.14% in October, thus increasing the accumulated expansion to 20.64% and the year-on-year expansion to 22.07%.
In the same period, the stock of credit to the economy, in national currency, expanded by 1.43%, reaching 4.33 billion kwanzas. In accumulated terms, the expansion was 15.21% and 2.28% compared to the same period last year.
Along the same lines, credit to the private sector increased by 0.65% in October, having reached an accumulated growth of 25.40% and 20.50% year-on-year.
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