José de Lima Massano presented the forecasts after the 109th meeting of the Monetary Policy Committee (CPM), in which it was decided to lower all the central bank's key rates.
In 2022, the Gross Domestic Product grew by around 3.17 percent, essentially supported by the non-oil sector, with emphasis on mercantile services, the diamond sector, agriculture and the construction sector.
The head of the BNA advanced that, in 2022, "a strong deceleration in the general level of prices was observed, with the inflation rate, at the end of the year, reaching the lowest values of the last five years", settling at 13.86 percent.
"The behavior of inflation was due to the course of monetary policy, the appreciation of the national currency in relation to the currencies used in commercial exchanges, as well as the increase and regularity of the supply of broad consumer goods, with emphasis on food goods", explained Lima Massano.
For 2023, the BNA predicts that the national economy will continue on an upward path, growing at a rate of around 3.3 percent.
As for the inflation rate, "it is expected that it will continue its deceleration path in 2023, ending the year between 9 percent and 11 percent", as a result of the favorable behavior of the aforementioned variables.
"We have a countercyclical price behavior with what is happening in other economies and an opportunity is created to have more favorable interest rates", underlined the official, adding that the BNA is migrating to the inflation targeting regime.
"We intend to reach single digits of inflation and modernize our instruments," he continued.
During the press conference at which the CPM's conclusions were presented, the BNA governor also addressed the foreign exchange market which "continues on its way" and has managed to "correct the imbalances", stating that measures are being taken so that operations exchange rates are less and less of a difficulty for people and companies.
He also made a positive assessment of the financial system, indicating that the BNA has regularly carried out inspections of all banks, with "remarkable progress".
The official also referred that the BNA will review measures that still condition access to housing credit, namely "limitations that do not stem from the will of the banks", but which are intended to help unblock, and revealed that around 33 percent of credit housing was granted.
