Central bank to continue with cautious monetary policy
By Mnaku Mbani
The central bank of Tanzania has said it will continue with
cautious monetary policy during the second half of Financial Year 2016/17,
which started last month. In its Monetary Policy Statement published today, the Bank of
Tanzania says it will continue with its cautious monetary policy in the midst
of the projected moderate rate of inflation and slowdown of credit to the
private sector.
“The Bank will also continue to closely monitor the trend in key
monetary indicators and participate actively in the money markets with a view
to maintaining stability of short-term interest rates and availability of
adequate liquidity among banks in support of economic activities,” says a
statement posted in the Bank of Tanzania website today.
“The Bank will continue with reforms to facilitate adoption of a
forward looking monetary policy framework with the use of interbank cash market
rate as an operational target.”
The reforms include among others the development of an
electronic platform for interbank cash market operations, integration of the
forecasting and policy analysis (FPAS) into the monetary policy formulation
process, improvement in the functioning of domestic financial markets,
expansion of the range of eligible collaterals for monetary operations and
enhancement of coordination with the fiscal policy.
The statement says that the monetary policy in the first half of
2016/17 was shaped by the change in liquidity outcomes of fiscal operations.
The Bank took liquidity injecting actions using a mix of
instruments that helped to provide sufficient liquidity to support economic
activities.
These measures notwithstanding, the period witnessed a general
slowdown in the growth rates of monetary aggregates. These developments set a
stage for monetary policy stance for the remainder of 2016/17.
The Bank says will
continue to closely monitor key monetary indicators and use its monetary policy
toolkit to ensure that annual growth of the broader monetary aggregates is
consistent with the medium-term inflation objective of 5 percent, and real GDP
growth of about 7 percent, while maintaining stability of the short-term
interest rates.
Maoni
Chapisha Maoni