The Executive Board of the Central Bank of Tunisia (BCT) decided at its meeting held December 27, 2017 to maintain the central bank’s interest rate unchanged, while raising by 100 basis points the minimum interest rate for to 5% from January 2018
BCT said this last measure aims to stimulate more savings and thus to support the financing of domestic investments by means of own resources.
The Board also stressed the need to continue to closely monitoring the evolution of economic and monetary indicators and affirmed its desire to protect itself against inflationary risks and to work to mobilize financial resources in favor of the liquidity of the system to strengthen its capacity to finance the economy and support growth.
The meeting also focused on the economic situation and prospects for growth and financial equilibrium, focusing in particular on recent price developments and factors likely to impact the inflation rate in the coming months.
In this respect, the Board particularly underlined that inflationary pressures, which have increased in recent months, bringing the inflation rate to 6.3% last November and to 5.2% monthly average over the last 11 month, compared with 3.7% a year earlier, require rigorous monitoring to prevent the impact of factors that could accelerate price developments over the coming period, and accordingly take needed monetary measures.
