Angola’s Central Bank Maintains Rates on stable inflation in April 2016

Luanda, Angola, Capital Markets in Africa —  National Bank of Angola (BNA, Banco Nacional de Angola) Monetary Policy Committee (CPM) held a meeting on 29 April 2016, decided to maintained the Basic Interest Rate at 14.oo%, BNA said in a statement on its website on Thursday.

In addition, the central bank left the standing lending facility rate at 16% and kept the overnight standing liquidity absorption facility rate at 2.25%.

In March 2016, the monthly inflation rate, measured by the Consumer Price Index in the province of Luanda was 3.43%, while inflation in the last twelve months stood at 23,60%, higher than 3, 34 percentage points compared to February 2016.

In the same period, the LUIBOR Overnight remained stable around 11.01% per annum and with maturities of 3 and 12 months the rates stood at 13.31% and 15.26% per year, respectively

According to preliminary data, in the month of March 2016, credit to the economy grew by 1.22%. On the other hand, the gross credit to the Central Government (titled and not titled) grew 5.3% while deposits of the government with the banking system contracted by 3.6%;

The payment means represented by aggregate M2 grew 4.32% in March and 22.9% in the last 12 months.

In March, commercial banks bought foreign exchange worth USD 790 million in the foreign exchange market, of which USD 550.49 million to BNA and the remainder to its customers, which compared to March 2015 represents a drop of about 50 3%.

In the primary exchange market, in March the national currency depreciated by 1.08% from the previous month, with the exchange rate stood at AOA 160.07 per USD.

The CPM also recommends the competent greater control and accountability of the promoters of the informal market of foreign exchange authorities and encourages the supervision of the BNA to be more active and energetic in the preservation of ethics and compliance with the rules of the financial system.

Similarly, the CPM encourages commercial banks to operate in accordance with prudential standards and international best practice in the fight against money laundering and the flight of hard currency.

The next regular meeting of the Monetary Policy Committee will take place at the end of May 2016.