The Monetary Policy Committee of the Bank of Mozambique has announced that the central bank’s key interest rates will remain unchanged for the rest of the year.

A statement from the committee, quoted by Mozambique News Agency, said the Standing Lending Facility, the interest rate paid by commercial banks to the central bank for money borrowed on the Interbank Money Market, will remain at 7.5 percent.

The rate was cut in November by 75 basis points, from the previous rate of 8.25 percent, which had been in force for a year.

The statement said that the Standing Deposit Facility, the rate paid by the central bank to commercial banks on money they deposit with it, would remain at 1.5 percent. The Compulsory Reserves Co-efficient, the minimum amount of money that the commercial banks must deposit with the Bank of Mozambique, was left untouched at 8 percent of their total deposits.

The Committee also decided that the central bank would intervene in the inter-bank markets in order to ensure that the monetary base does not exceed 55.3 billion meticais (US$1.6 billion) by the end of the year.

By leaving the key interest rates untouched, the Bank of Mozambique is signalling that there will be no major changes in the cost of credit from commercial banks, despite repeated calls for lenders to reduce their rates.

In its report, the Monetary Policy Committee noted that the country’s main macroeconomic indicators remained positive, especially inflation, which is below the 6-percent goal set by the Government for 2014.