Botswana Holds Rate at Almost 12-Year Low as Inflation In Range

(Bloomberg) -- Botswana’s central bank kept its key interest rate at the lowest since at least 2007.

The Monetary Policy Committee held the rate at 5 percent, Governor Moses Pelaelo told reporters Tuesday in the capital, Gaborone. It last changed the rate in October 2017, when it reduced it by 50 basis points.

The central bank has an inflation-target band of 3 percent to 6 percent. Consumer prices rose 3.5 percent in December and the rate hasn’t breached the upper end of the range since at least 2014.

Botswana is a landlocked country of about 2.2 million people that’s roughly the size of Texas. It’s the world’s biggest diamond producer after Russia and has sub-Saharan Africa’s highest credit rating at Moody’s Investors Service.

To contact the reporter on this story: Mbongeni Mguni in Botswana at mmguni@bloomberg.net

To contact the editors responsible for this story: Rene Vollgraaff at rvollgraaff@bloomberg.net, Ana Monteiro

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