"In August we had 19.8 percent inflation and the forecast is to reach 18 percent, but we should end the year well below 18 percent", said Tiago Dias in his speech at the 32nd Lisbon Meeting, which brings together the central banks of Portuguese-speaking countries.
The slowdown in the rise in prices "was the reason why at the last meeting the main interest rate was lowered from 20 to 19.5 percent, to signal the BNA's alignment with the good signals from the external sector", added the vice governor.
Pointing out inflation as "the main challenge of monetary policy", Tiago Dias pointed out that the fall in inflation is a consequence of the reforms that have been launched in the monetary sector since 2017, first of all by the partial liberalization of the exchange rate, which allowed the kwanza, after years of devaluation, it is now more stable, having canceled last year part of the losses recorded since 2018.
"The covid-19 pandemic caught us in a critical period, but it was very good that we adopted the policies that we adopted", he pointed out, exemplifying with the number of financial entities that lost their right to operate.
"We had to withdraw the license from 35 financial operators, of which five were commercial banks", said Tiago Dias during his speech.
In the remaining interventions, the governors of the central banks of Cape Verde, Guinea-Bissau, São Tomé and Príncipe, Mozambique and Timor-Leste, in addition to a representative of the Central Bank of West African States, spoke about the challenges of these Portuguese-speaking countries. , which have in common the fact that they are exposed to climate change.
"One of the biggest challenges that central banks face is climate change, which in an island country like Cape Verde, which has 30 percent of its GDP based on tourism, represents a huge challenge", summarized the governor of the central bank of Cape Verde, Oscar Santos.
