For the economist, the referred measures, which should be taken at the next meeting of the Monetary Policy Committee of the National Bank of Angola (BNA), "are necessary and are slow to be implemented", in view of the depreciation of the kwanza in the last two months.
"The BNA will increase the reference interest rate, the current BNA rate is at 17 percent and the BNA should increase to close to 20 percent already at this meeting (scheduled for Thursday), it should also possibly review the exchange rate position commercial banks," Wilson Chimoco told Lusa.
The economist noted that the exchange rate position of Angolan banks, "currently at 10 percent, could be reduced by the BNA to 5 percent or even 2.5 percent, as has already been seen in more challenging periods of the economy".
"And these measures, of course, that could contribute to greater control of the money supply, which is the main element that guarantees commercial banks to participate in currency auctions", he argued.
"As the central bank is the authority responsible for ensuring price stability, it is expected that at this July 14 meeting, it will reintroduce a set of instruments that until then were being withdrawn", he stressed.
The need for "exchange market stabilization", explained the specialist, should contribute to the implementation of "more restrictive measures, so that the kwanza does not continue to depreciate as in the last two months".
"And to foresee the increase, so that in the medium term, already in the next two or three years, the BNA manages to have the inflation rate in Angola to settle close to one digit, as a medium term objective", he pointed out.
Measures to stop the depreciation of the kwanza "are necessary" and, he noted, "they come late, because this depreciation started on May 12 and the BNA met on the 18th of the same month and by then it should have taken more assertive measures to ensure that the kwanza did not have the path it did".
The central bank's actions, maintained the economist, "must be done now very assertively and very urgently to prevent, then, the market from continuing to perform as it is having".
"And not doing anything, at this moment, was the worst that could happen, the mistake of not having done it in time has already been made and not doing anything else would be the worst scenario, it is important, it is necessary that these measures be taken" , concluded Wilson Chimoco.
The BNA's Monetary Policy Committee meets on Thursday to assess the country's current macroeconomic and financial situation.
