Namibia keeps benchmark rate unchanged to safeguard reserves
The country’s monetary policy committee maintained its key interest rate at 6.75% on Wednesday, to maintain the Namibian dollar’s peg with the rand
Namibia’s central bank has left its benchmark rate unchanged for a fifth consecutive meeting as it looks to safeguard the country’s reserves and maintain its currency’s peg with the rand. The country’s monetary policy committee maintained its key interest rate at 6.75% on Wednesday, governor Ipumbu Shiimi told reporters in the capital, Windhoek. That’s the lowest since February 2016. Last month, the South African Reserve Bank kept its key gauge at 6.5%. Inflation in the world’s biggest producer of marine diamonds was 3.6% in April, near the lowest since 2015, as the economy struggles to expand. GDP either contracted or stayed flat in six of the seven quarters up until the first three months of this year. Despite a slump in the local economy in the first four months of the year, led by a slowdown the wholesale, retail-trade and fishing industries, "the domestic economy is expected to perform slightly better in 2018 compared to 2017", Shiimi said. The central bank will revise its grow...
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