[ad_1]
Sunday Standard
Bank of England prepares to review interest rates
The Bank of Botswana’s Monetary Policy Committee (MPC) will meet on Thursday to decide on the benchmark interest rate in light of the recent surge in inflation.
Data from Statistics Botswana showed that based on the Consumer Price Index (CPI), inflation rose to 3.7% in July from 2.8% in June, driven by a variety of economic factors.
At its June meeting, the Monetary Policy Committee kept the Monetary Policy Rate (MoPR) unchanged at 2.4%, citing favourable inflation trends observed at the end of April. At the time, Deputy Governor Kealeboga Masalila said the projected lower inflation was due to the base effect of the reduction of the Value Added Tax from 12% to 14% in 2023, subdued domestic demand and lower-than-expected international food prices.
While the central bank acknowledged that inflation could temporarily fall below the 3% lower limit, it expects inflation to remain within the target range in the medium term and close to the upper limit by 2025.
Thursday’s meeting also followed recent survey results showing local businesses are betting that economic growth will improve even though output has been weak since last year.
According to the Bank of Botswana’s recently released Business Expectations Survey (BES) for the second quarter of 2024, businesses are more optimistic about business conditions in the second quarter of 2024 compared to the first quarter of 2024. Businesses expect overall output to grow by 3.4% in 2024. On a quarterly basis, businesses expect gross domestic product (GDP) to grow by 3.1% and 3.4% in the second and third quarters of 2024.
The quarterly survey collects the views of the domestic business community on the current state of the economy and expectations during the survey period. The BES surveyed a sample of 100 companies from 13 economic sectors, and the questions focused on the expected direction of change in the selected indicators and whether they were expected to improve, remain the same, or deteriorate. The response rate for the current survey was 66%, while the response rate for the March 2024 survey was 65%.
Posts Bank of England prepares to review interest rates First appeared in Sunday Standard And by sunday standard reporter
[ad_2]
Source link
