Next central bank rates this week

Daily News reporter

TANZANIA: NEXT Central Bank Rates (CBR) will be announced on Thursday this week, the Bank of Tanzania has said.

The Bank of Tanzania (BoT) set its main interest rate at 5.5 per cent in January this year after adopting an interest-rate-based monetary policy framework to contain inflation within its target and boost economic growth.

The January announcement was the first by the Central Bank after using a benchmark interest rate to signal its monetary policy direction.

The BoT Monetary Policy Committee met on January 18, the first-ever meeting in which the banking regulator began implementing monetary policy using interest rates.

“This forward-looking framework is expected to improve the effectiveness of monetary policy in the changing economic environment.” “The decision on the CBR (Central Bank Rate) considered the need to contain inflation within the medium-term target of 5 per cent while supporting economic growth to reach 5.5 per cent or more in 2024,” Central Bank Governor Emmanuel Tutuba said at a press conference in January.

The inflation rate in February 2024 remained 3.0 per cent the same in December last year after it declined from 3.2 per cent in November.

The central bank said it expects gross domestic product to grow by 5.5 per cent in 2024, after an expansion of about 5 per cent in 2023.

Tutuba said the decision by the bank’s Monetary Policy Committee was also aimed at ensuring the stability of the exchange rate, adding the new rate does not involve capping interest rates on facilities offered by other institutions.

“Interest rates of facilities offered by banks and financial institutions will still be market-determined,” he said.