Lisbon - The governor of the National Reserve Bank of Angola (BNA), José de Lima Massano, said Wednesday in Lisbon that the main objective of the monetary policy of the central bank is to secure the decrease of inflation to a single digit by 2024.
Speaking to the press during a seminar on the "New Cycle of the Angolan Economy", the Angolan official said the country is migrating to an inflation targeting regime.
"We have seen a drop in inflation in Angola and the April data on the evolution of prices in Luanda show the lowest value since July 2015", Mr Massano said.
The central bank governor added that the National Statistics Institute is to release values for May and the perspective is an even sharper drop in inflation than in April, so inflation is expected to end the year at 18 percent.
"We have the goal that inflation reaches a single-digit growth in 2024", the BNA governor said.
The Angolan national currency (kwanza) has recorded appreciation in recent months, now worth 430 kwanzas for one dollar, following high fuel prices, which helps to ease the rise of inflation in the country very dependent on imports.
The manager said the kwanza appreciated 30 percent against the dollar since the beginning of the year, adding that last year the currency valued 18 percent against the dollar recovering from the sharp falls it was registering since 2017.
"We’ll continue with a restrictive monetary policy because, although there is a record of a retreat of inflation, it remains at high levels, because the year-on-year rate is above 20%, and there is a work that must continue", Massano said, stressing that there is great willingness to make conditions more relaxed, but that this path must be taken, with realism, since the primary mission is price stability.
Massano explained that the BNA has already taken measures to foster economic recovery and commercial banking financing.
