Author: The Editorial Team

NAIROBI (Capital Markets in Africa): Kenya’s central bank joined its South African counterpart by unexpectedly cutting interest rates, citing well-anchored inflation expectations and an economy that’s operating below its potential. The monetary policy committee reduced its key rate to 8.25% from 8.5%, Governor Patrick Njoroge said in an emailed statement on Monday. That’s the second consecutive cut and moves the rate to the lowest in more than eight years. All three economists surveyed by Bloomberg said it…

KIGALI (Capital Markets in Africa) – Changing weather patterns are pushing up food prices and will drive inflation in Rwanda for the first few months of this year, central bank Governor John Rwangombwa said. Unexpectedly heavy rains in the second half of 2019 caused some crop damage and food inflation reached 23.8% in December, the highest in almost three years.  “Because of the bad rains we had in the last quarter of 2019 we expect inflation in…

LAGOS (Capital Markets in Africa) – Nigeria turned the screws even tighter on lenders by increasing the amount of money they need to park with the central bank for the first time in almost four years in an effort to tame inflation. The West African nation’s central bank raised the cash-reserve requirement for lenders to 27.5% of total deposits, from 22.5%, to curtail excess liquidity in the banking sector, Governor Godwin Emefiele told reporters Friday…