Angola’s central bank seeks to stimulate credit

The issuing entity lowered the basic rate from 19.5 to 18 percent, announced the governor of the BNA, José de Lima Massano, after finishing the meeting of the Monetary Policy Committee, reported today the newspaper Jornal de Angola.

It also moved the one referring to the permanent liquidity transfer facility, which went from 21 to 18 percent, and the permanent liquidity absorption facility, whose variation was from 15 to 14 percent, the official said.

According to Lima Massano, the decisions took into account the behavior of internal inflation during the past year and the alignment of monetary conditions with the inflation objective in the medium and long terms, in light of the national and international economic context. -financial.

The adjustment of the basic reference rate of the BNA, with a decrease of 1.5 percentage points, responds to the gradual recovery of the Angolan economy, said the official.

It is not exactly a matter of loosening monetary policy; “We are going to try to maintain the effort to reduce inflation,” he replied to the press.

“It is a downward adjustment because conditions allow it and if the current framework remains unchanged, we will be able to continue on our path,” he stressed.

According to the source, the BNA considered that the external sector of the national economy had a positive performance in 2022, registering a surplus balance in the assets account of 30 thousand 920 million dollars, which represented an increase of 41.92 percent. cent compared to 2021.

However, during the previous year, exports registered a rise of 43.49 percent and imports increased by 46.40 percentage points, the report added.

Meanwhile, liquid international reserves were located at 14 thousand 480 million dollars, equivalent to a coverage of around six months of imports of goods and services.

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