Luanda - The Monetary Policy Committee (CPM) of the National Bank of Angola (BNA) reduced the reference interest rate from 20 percent to 19.5 percent, and the Permanent Liquidity Facility Rate, from 23 to 21 percent, announced Monday the BNA governor, José de Lima Massano.
According to the BNA governor, the decision results from the 107th ordinary meeting of the CPM, which decided to keep unchanged the interest rate of the permanent facility of the absorption liquidity fixed at 15 percent.
José Massano explained that the reduction of the interest rate was driven by the control of liquidity, the appreciation of the kwanza, against major foreign currencies and increase in the supply of essential goods of wide national consumption.
"The BNA understood that the conditions for the reduction of the reference (base) interest rate were met, having taken into account, besides the domestic environment, the external context and risks, given the Angolan economy's exposure to the oil sector and the weight of imported foodstuffs in the supply base of the domestic market", clarified the governor.
According to the governor, the external sector of the economy has been benefiting from more credits, where goods services registered a surplus balance of 23.3 billion dollars, in accumulated terms until August.
In BNA's view, this positive performance is reflected in the increase in the value of exports, by about 67.8 %, which exceeded the growth of 49.2 observed in imports.
Regarding international reserves, José Massano said that until the month of August it kept at 13.8 billion US dollars, covering seven months of imports of goods and services to the country.
About the real sector, the governor said that the employment data and the confidence climate of managers and businesspersosns, referring to the second quarter of 2022, show the consolidation of economic activity growth.
The Central Bank governor explained that unemployment has been reduced for the third consecutive quarter, reaching a 30.2 percent rate below the one registered in the same period last year, which was 31.6 percent.
Regarding the financial activity compared to December 2021, the responsible highlighted the 7.1 percent growth in the stock of credit granted in national currency, despite the concern of non-performing loans, which remains at around 21%.
José Massano pointed out that the monetary trajectory, in national currency, remains consistent with the monetary policy objectives, having retreated 0.12 in the month of August, corresponding to an annual contraction of 2.74 %.
The governor clarified that the inflation has decelerated and stood at 19.8 percent in August, down from 21 percent a month earlier and 26.1 percent year-on-year.
The Monetary Policy Committee maintains the inflation rate outlook for the end of this year below the initial forecast of 18 percent, moving towards the single-digit objective in the medium term.
The next meeting of the specialty committee of the BNA takes place on November 25 this year .
