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Kenyan Regulator Says Rate Caps Complicates Monetary Policy

NAIROBI, Capital Markets in Africa: Kenya’s decision to introduce caps on commercial-lending rates is complicating monetary policy, Central Bank of Kenya Governor Patrick Njoroge said. “With the rate caps, it’s not clear which way to go,” Njoroge told reporters in the capital, Nairobi, on Wednesday, a day after the central bank cut its benchmark rate by 50 basis points to 10 percent. The limits on borrowing rates may result in a “perverse reaction” among banks and lead to riskier…

Nigeria Needs Lower Interest Rates, Finance Minister Says

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LAGOS, Capital Markets in Africa: Nigeria’s Monetary Policy Committee needs to cut interest rates to help boost the economy because it’s currently more important to focus on growth than on inflation, according to Finance Minister Kemi Adeosun. “We would like to see the interest-rate increase that happened at the last MPC meeting reconsidered,” Adeosun said in an interview with broadcaster CNBC Africa Monday. “At the moment in the Nigerian economy, growth is the most important thing.”…

Kenya Cuts Rates Weeks After Capping Cost of Commercial Credit

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NAIROBI, Capital Markets in Africa: The Central Bank of Kenya reduced its benchmark rate by 50 basis points to 10 percent, its second cut in four months, in a bid to boost private-sector credit amid government restrictions on loan costs. “The MPC noted the continued decline in growth of private sector credit, which has persisted since the last meeting, posing a risk to economic growth,” Governor Patrick Njoroge said in an e-mailed statement from the capital, Nairobi, Tuesday. Only…

Ghana’s Central Bank Keeps Benchmark Interest Rate in Sept

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ACCRA, Capital Markets in Africa: Ghana’s central bank kept its benchmark interest rate unchanged for a fifth consecutive meeting after inflation accelerated in August. The Bank of Ghana held the rate at 26 percent, Governor Abdul Nashiru Issahaku told reporters Monday in the capital, Accra. That was in line with the forecast of six of the eight economists in a Bloomberg survey. One said the rate would be cut by 100 basis points and another forecast a 200 basis-point…

Mozambique delays MPC meeting by a month

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MAPUTO, Capital Markets in Africa: The Mozambique central bank’s Monetary Policy Committee (MPC) will hold its next meeting in October and not September as earlier planned, the bank said on Friday, without giving reasons. The MPC will hold its ninth meeting of the year on Oct. 21, the central bank said in a statement. The bank lifted its main lending rate by 300 basis points to 17.25 percent in July due to soaring inflation and…

Kenyan Central Bank Sets CBR as the Base Rate for Loan Charges

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NAIROBI, Capital Market in Africa: Kenya’s central bank said lenders should peg their loans to its Central Bank Rate, or CBR, in line with a new law capping costs and as the International Monetary Fund warned that legislation limiting how much lenders charge for credit risks impeding access to loans. East Africa’s biggest economy has introduced restrictions on borrowing costs that set commercial rates at 400 basis points above a central bank base rate. Most…

South Africa’s Rand Gains Offer South Africa’s Kganyago ‘Cushion’ on Rates

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South Africa, Capital Markets in Africa: The recent strength of South Africa’s rand is providing a cushion for the country’s policy makers and shouldn’t lead to complacency in tackling inflation, Reserve Bank Governor Lesetja Kganyago said. “The risks to the inflation outlook has to do with possible future weakness in the currency,” Kganyago told reporters at a central bank event in Pretoria on Thursday. “The fact that the currency has strengthened has not taken that way, it has…

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