The measures were announced this Friday by the governor of the BNA, Manuel Tiago Dias, at a press conference, after the meeting of the Monetary Policy Committee.
Thus the policy rate (known as the BNA rate) will rise from 18 percent to 19 percent, the interest rate on the permanent liquidity provision facility from 18.5 percent to 19.5 percent and the interest rate on the permanent liquidity absorption facility by 17.5 percent to 18.5 percent.
Manuel Dias highlighted that monthly inflation was 2.58 percent in December, essentially due to the increase in the "non-alcoholic food and beverage" class, corresponding to around 70 percent of the inflation observed in the period.
In year-on-year terms, inflation reached 24 percent in February.
According to the head of the BNA, the behavior of food prices essentially results from the reduction in the supply of widely consumed products, taking into account the reduction in imports (-18.6 percent in February) and the insufficiency of domestic production.
"Our expectations are that the imbalance between supply and demand will be quickly corrected," he said, highlighting that domestic production of goods is well below the population growth rate and has not been compensated by imports, which are also recording a very sharp drop, above 30 percent.
"We need to find mechanisms to correct these imbalances", he reinforced.
Based on current information, the BNA governor estimated that, from the second semester onwards, monthly inflation rates will be below those recorded last year and there will be a year-on-year deceleration trend leading to forecasts of 19 percent inflation at the end of the year.
The governor of the central bank also mentioned the entry into circulation of new 1000 and 2000 kwanza notes, announcing new 5000 kwanza notes soon, denying the existence of high volumes of counterfeiting.
"Last year, we recorded 2500 counterfeit banknotes", he said, stating that more than 500 million banknotes are in circulation.
The vice-governor, Pedro Castro e Silva, asked about the increase in fees for withdrawing money through Automatic Payment Terminals (TPA), said that the decision was taken to compensate merchants' investments in these terminals.
In 2023, more than 400,000 withdrawals were made through TPAs, a growth of more than 1,000 percent, he highlighted, noting that the ATM network also continues to be expanded
Last year there were 3548 ATMs across the country, corresponding to an increase of 11 percent compared to December 2022.
"We will continue to observe queues, but it is our expectation that the pressure will be less as we increase [the number of ATMs]", highlighted the same person in charge.
The next CPM meeting will take place in Luanda on the 16th and 17th of May.
