Banking | - Part 111

Kenyan Central Bank Signals Rates on Hold as Inflation Slows

NAIROBI, Kenya, Capital Markets in Africa: Kenya’s central bank signaled it will keep interest rates unchanged after inflation slowed to within the government’s target range. The bank last month cut its benchmark lending rate by one percentage point to 10.5 percent, the first reduction in three years, as consumer-price growth eased to 5 percent, the slowest pace since June 2013. Inflation will probably remain steady even as fuel costs rise and after the Treasury announced tax increases…

Banking | Pan-African lender Ecobank may close some operations

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LOME, Togo, Capital Markets in Africa: Ecobank is reviewing its expansion strategy following a decline in profits and may pull out of some African countries to focus on its most promising markets, chairman Emmanuel Ikazoboh told Reuters. Ecobank is based in Togo and operates in 36 African countries, making it a rare example of a pan-African bank that has developed outside South Africa, home to giants such as Standard Bank and FirstRand. But falling global…

Nigeria Delays New Bank Capital Rules in Bid to Avoid Recession

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Lagos, Nigeria, Capital Markets in Africa: Nigeria plans to delay new capital rules for banks as regulators in Africa’s biggest economy follow fellow oil producer Kazakhstan in trying to boost lending and avoid a recession. The Central Bank of Nigeria in 2014 ordered the country’s lenders it considered too big to fail to boost minimum capital adequacy ratios to 16 percent from 15 percent to increase their resilience to shocks. The new rules, which followed a banking crisis…

Nigeria | Out of Options Amid Economic Slump, Nigeria Abandons Naira Peg

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LAGOS, Nigeria, Capital Markets in Africa: Battered by the oil plunge, starved of foreign currency and with the economy headed into recession, Africa’s second-biggest crude producer said Wednesday it will allow the naira to float, setting the stage for the currency to weaken. Free trade in the naira, set for Monday, will mark the end of more than a year of resistance by President Muhammadu Buhari, who reiterated his opposition to devaluation as recently as two…

Egypt’s Dilemma as Central Bank Meets on Rates

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CAIRO, Egypt, Capital Markets in Africa: Soaring inflation and a long-running dollar shortage suggest Egypt’s central bank has ample reason to raise interest rates when officials meet on Thursday. On the flip-side, doing so would increase interest payments for a government trying to plug a hole in its finances. A Bloomberg survey shows economists are split, with three predicting a hold and three predicting an increase to the benchmark rate. The central bank raised Egypt’s key interest…

Bank of Japan Keeps Policy Unchanged Even as Kuroda Warns on Yen

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LAGOS, Nigeria, Capital Markets in Africa: The Bank of Japan refrained from expanding monetary stimulus ahead of the U.K. vote on Brexit next week that could roil global markets, and before a domestic election in which the political opposition has made the bank’s negative interest-rate policy an issue. With the yen soaring to its strongest in almost two years after the decision Thursday, Governor Haruhiko Kuroda reiterated in a press conference in Tokyo that the central bank won’t hesitate to take…

Mozambique Raises Key Rate to 14.25% to Contain Inflation in June

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MAPUTO, Capital Markets in Africa: Mozambique’s central bank raised its key interest rate for a third time this year as a weakening currency led to soaring inflation in the southern African nation. Policy makers increased the benchmark policy rate by 150 basis points to 14.25 percent, the Maputo-based institution said in a statement on Monday. The interest rate on the standing deposit facility was raised to 7.25 percent from 5.75 percent. The annual inflation rate…

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