Mozambique’s central bank last week again raised its benchmark interest rates in a bid to curb inflation in the African country, the bank said in a statement.
The Bank of Mozambique said its standing lending facility rate was increased by 200 basis points to 12.75 percent. Its benchmark interest rate for deposits was increased by 150 basis points to 5.75 percent, the central bank added.
The bank had already raised those two benchmark interest rates in February.
The bank’s Monetary Policy Committee said it took into account international economic factors, including “the prevalence of uncertainty regarding the recovery of [the] global economy” and the decreasing prices of commodities.
The committee said it also considered internal economic factors, such as the “aggravated risk of inflationary pressure,” reflecting, for instance, “the effects of the depreciation of the national currency, the metical, the drought in south and central Mozambique, as well as excessive rainfall in the north”.
