Africa-Press – Angola. The National Bank of Angola (BNA) decided yesterday to maintain the basic interest rate at 17%, a decision resulting from the 111th ordinary meeting of the Monetary Policy Committee (CPM), held in the city of Cuito, Bié province.
The interest rate on the Standing Facility for Providing Liquidity and the interest rate on the Standing Facility for Absorbing Liquidity also remained unchanged, at 17% and 13.5%, respectively.
In a press conference, after the end of the CPM meeting, which the city of Cuito hosted from the 18th to the 19th of the current month, the governor of the BNA, José de Lima Massano, argued that the decision to maintain interest rates is based on in the change registered in some of the macroeconomic variables with the potential to influence price stability in the economy, recommending a period of observation and accommodation of the decisions taken in the two previous sessions of the Monetary Policy Committee.
Among the main changes, the governor highlighted the reduction in the balance of trade, with an impact on the supply of foreign exchange resources to economic operators and consequent pressure on the national currency, which should culminate in a lower supply of imported goods that are not yet fully offset by internal production.
Additionally, considering that the changes in question may prevail in the short term, he informed that the Monetary Policy Committee considers it necessary to offer financial instruments to mitigate exchange rate risk.
Thus, it decided to place on the market National Treasury Bonds from the Banco Nacional de Angola portfolio, in foreign currency, in the amount of 350 million US dollars, which may be purchased in national currency by any interested party at the Bolsa de Dívidas e Valores Mobiliários de Angola (BODIVA) or through commercial banks.
He also said that, at national level, the National Consumer Price Index (IPCN) compiled by the National Institute of Statistics recorded a monthly variation of 0.92%, while the year-on-year inflation rate stood at 10.59% .
The biggest changes occurred in Health (1.91%), Clothing and Footwear (1.55%), Goods and Services (1.45%), Hotels, Cafés and Restaurants (1.22%).
He stressed that, of the set of 732 products that make up the IPCN basket, only 24 products grouped in the categories of Meat and Derivatives, Fish and Molluscs, Vegetables and Tubers, Bread and Cereals, Hairdressing Salons, represented 50.23% of the observed inflation in the month of April.
The border provinces of Namibe (1.12%), Cunene (1.08%), Zaire (1.08%), Uíge (1.04%) and Lunda Norte (1.03%) registered the highest inflation rates highs in the period.
In the monetary domain, he referred that the Monetary Base in national currency recorded an accumulated contraction of 5.05% in the year, while the intermediate variable (M2 in national currency) expanded by 3.56%.
In the external sector, the terms of trade deteriorated, which contributed to the reduction of the surplus balance on the goods account by 27.05% to US$6.04 billion in the first four months of the year, compared to to the last of 2022, reflecting the 23.02% reduction in the value of exports.
The International Reserves, he continued, remained stable. At the end of April, they stood at US$14.45 billion, which translates into a coverage level of 6.56 months of imports of goods and services.
The governor of the BNA, José de Lima Massano, also informed that the national currency had depreciated by 7% against the US dollar, between January and the present date.
The next meeting will take place in Luanda, on the 17th and 18th of July 2023.
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