Angola’s central bank leaves key interest rate unchanged at 12% in February

Luanda, Angola, Capital Markets in Africa — National Bank of Angola (BNA, Banco Nacional de Angola) kept the Basic Interest Rate unchanged at 12.00 percent, to maintain price stability, and taking into account the economic outlook.

In addition, the Interest Rate Standing Facility Liquidity Lending and the Interest Rate Standing Facility Liquidity Absorption to seven days remained unchanged at 14.00 percent and 1.75 percent respectively, the BNA stated in the press release.

Regarding evolution of inflation, according to the data released by the National Statistics Institute (INE), in January 2016, the monthly inflation rate reached 3.43%, being 1.83 percentage points above that recorded monthly inflation in December 2015 (1.60 %). On year-on-year (12 months), inflation in January was recorded at 17.34 percent, corresponding to an increase of 3.07 percentage points compared to December 2015 and of 9.90 percentage points compared to January 2015, Angola’s central bank noted.

In its brief press release, the Bank stated that the average exchange rate for the Angolan kwanza depreciated by 15.00% against the previous month, standing at 156.6 AOA per USD in January. In respect of the stock of credit in the economy, the Monetary Policy Committee hinted that in January it had expanded by 3.01% in cumulative terms since the beginning of the year.

The rates were previously rated in January and December meeting by 100 basis points and 50 basis points respectively. The next regular meeting of the Monetary Policy Committee will take place on March 28, 2016.