Central Bank of Kenya has maintained the benchmark interest rate unchanged at 9.00% for a seventh consecutive meeting as inflation is seen staying inside the target, a signaled that CBK may start cutting soon.
The Monetary Policy Committee held the rate at 9.00%, Governor Patrick Njoroge said Monday after the MPC held it’s statement issued following its bi-monthly Monetary Policy Committee (MPC) meeting. CBK attributed the hold in the borrowing rates to stability in the core consumer prices despite ongoing global and local economic turbulence.
The Kenyan shilling has been on the back foot against the dollar in the past six months. It traded at 103.88 by 4.30 p.m. in Nairobi on Monday. The central bank is monitoring ongoing effect of the replacement of 1,000 shilling notes with newly designed notes for any impact on inflation to which they might be prompted to take various actions on the exposed shilling.
