Friday, December 9, 2011

Botswana Central Bank Keeps Interest Rate at 9.50%

The Bank of Botswana's Monetary Policy Committee kept its benchmark interest rate steady at 9.50%.  The Bank said: "Low growth in domestic demand and the forecast modest external inflationary pressures contribute to the positive inflation outlook in the medium term." also noting "However, in the short-term, inflation is expected to remain above the bank's objective range of 3 - 6 percent due to the impact of transient factors. These include the increase in fuel prices and public transport fares."

Previously the Bank also kept the 
bank rate unchanged at 9.50% during its October meeting, while the Bank last dropped the rate 50 basis points to 9.50% in December last year.  Botswana recorded annual price inflation of 8.8% in October, 8.6% in September, 7.8% in July, 7.9% in June, 8.3% in May, and 8.2% in April, and above the central bank's target range of 3-6%, according to the central bank.

The Bank said domestic output grew an estimated annual rate of 12.4% in the second quarter, driven largely by the 23.7% growth reported in the mining sector; with the non-mining sector growing just 7.4%.  Botswana's currency, the Botswana Pula (BWP), has weakened by over 10% against the US dollar so far this year, while the USDBWP exchange rate last traded around 7.45

1 comment:

  1. I cannot for the life of me understand how it is that the banks in botswana are not regulated in the ammount of interest charged to customers on loan and vehicle finance, the interest is not linked to the prime rate or anything of that sort in an example on a small of 130,000 the interest is 29+% and rapayment is as follows 3,127 interest portion capital repayment 1215 over a periode of 51 months remaining disgusting???

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