DAKAR (Reuters) – Democratic Republic of Congo’s central bank has kept its prime interest rate at 7.5%, despite rising food and fuel prices due to the effects of the pandemic and Russia’s invasion of Ukraine, a statement from the bank showed.
The statement, released on Sunday, followed the monetary policy committee’s meeting on Friday.
The bank cut its main interest rate three times last year, from 18.5% to 8.5%, and then again in January this year by another 100 basis points to 7.5%.
After its January meeting it said it will keep the rate at 7.5% throughout 2022.
Annual inflation is seen at 6.52% by the end of 2022 from a previous forecast of 5% and compared with 5.28% at the end of last year, the bank said in the statement released on Sunday.
Congo’s economy is expected to suffer repercussions of the pandemic and Russia’s invasion of Ukraine through the rise in prices of petroleum and food products as the country is a net importer, it said.
The central bank of Africa’s top producer of copper and the world’s leading miner of the battery metal cobalt, revised its economic growth forecast to 6.4% in 2022 from 6.1% previously, boosted by the current rise in commodity prices, it said.
(Writing by Bate Felix; Editing by Susan Fenton)
