The interest rate on the Standing Facility for Providing Liquidity dropped from 21 to 18 percent, while the interest rate on the Standing Facility for Liquidity Absorption dropped from 15 to 14 percent.
The new rates were announced in Luanda by the central bank governor, José de Lima Massano, after the 109th meeting of the BNA's Monetary Policy Committee.
The governor justified the decrease with the reduction of inflation and inflationary pressures in 2022, as well as the alignment of monetary conditions with the objective of medium and long-term inflation.
He noted that the basic interest rate remains above inflation (13.8 percent in 2022), so it is necessary to continue to make an effort to reduce it.
“But we should not take this exercise from a perspective of strangling the economy, we do not consider this measure a relaxation, but a downward adjustment towards the SADC (Southern African Development Community) target, between 4 and 6 percent”, complemented Lima Massano, noting that throughout 2022 there was a smaller variation in prices in the economy.
The Monetary Policy Committee analyzed the international economic situation, which points to a slowdown in growth and a reduction in inflation in 2023, as a result of the restrictive monetary policy, the slowdown in economic activity, the normalization of supply chains and prices of ' non-energy commodities'.
At national level, "the macroeconomic fundamentals remain favourable", continued Massano, pointing to the positive performance of the goods account which recorded a surplus balance of 30.92 billion dollars (+41.92 percent than in 2021), approximately 28.51 billion euros.
International Reserves stood at 14.48 billion dollars, which corresponds to coverage of around six months of imports of goods and services.
