Deogratias Mutombo Mwana Nyembo, Governor of the Central Bank of Congo (BCC) announces that the key rate has now been lowered by two points, from 10.5% to 8.5%. The move is in line with the prospect of maintaining macroeconomic stability over the coming months, the source said.

The reduction in the key rate also aims to lower the cost of refinancing for banks in order to enable them to easily rebalance their positions and improve the conditions for their assistance to the economy. In the same context, the coefficients of the compulsory reserve on sight and term deposits are maintained respectively at 13.0% and 12.0% and those for sight and term deposits in national currency at 0.0. %. To regulate liquidity, the BCC continues with the Treasury bond while maintaining the momentum of collaboration for the consolidation of the stability of the macroeconomic situation. The BCC's monetary balance sheet shows a monthly increase of CDF 309.7 billion in May. The overall outstanding amount of BCC bonds remained at CDF 15.0 billion, and free assets remained negative at CDF -365.4 billion.

On the goods and services market, a deceleration in the rate of price formation was noted, thus placing the inflation rate at 0.433% last May against 0.466% in April. Year-on-year, the inflation rate stands at 11.687% and 1.939%, year-to-date at 4.871%, i.e. at the end of December 2021, all other things remaining equal, while the target remains at 7.0%, at middle term. The revenue mobilized amounted to 1,016.4 billion CDF against a monthly programming of 859.5 billion. As for expenses, they amounted to 903.2 billion CDF against a forecast amount of 789.8 billion CDF.