Kenya’s c. bank keeps rates at 13%

Kenya’s central bank decided to maintain its benchmark lending rate at 13.0 per cent on Wednesday, as per a Monetary Policy Committee (MPC) statement.

The move aimed to facilitate the ongoing decline of inflation to the desired level.

This follows a series of rate increases in December and February, which were implemented to stabilise the exchange rate and initiate a decrease in persistent inflation.

“The MPC observed that previous measures have contributed to reducing inflation, alleviating exchange rate pressures, and solidifying inflationary expectations,” noted the committee.

On the other hand, the Kenyan shilling has demonstrated stability against the dollar subsequent to the successful government endeavor in February, where $1.5 billion was raised from international markets to partially redeem another bond set to mature in June.

Inflation, which had lingered on the higher side of the government’s preferred range of 2.5-7.5 per cent for some time, declined to 5.7 per cent last month.

“The current monetary policy stance aims to steer overall inflation further downward toward the midpoint target of 5.0 per cent,” affirmed the MPC.