By Reuters Staff
1 Min Read
FILE PHOTO: A view shows the Central Bank building, in Beirut, Lebanon November 12, 2020. Picture taken November 12, 2020. REUTERS/Mohamed Azakir
DUBAI (Reuters) -Lebanon’s central bank is ready to facilitate a forensic audit process by Alvarez & Marsal and will discuss this in a virtual meeting with the restructuring company on April 6, it said in a statement on Thursday.
Alvarez & Marsal pulled out of the audit procedure in November, saying it had not received the information it required, prompting parliament in December to lift banking secrecy for one year.
The audit is on a list of reforms that foreign donors have demanded before helping Lebanon out of its grave financial crisis, rooted in decades of state waste and corruption.
By Reuters Staff
2 Min Read
JUBA (Reuters) - South Sudan’s central bank ordered banks on Thursday to start using one foreign exchange rate in order to reduce market distortions, seeking to stabilise an economy reeling from years of war and the impact of the COVID-19 pandemic.
While the central bank’s indicative exchange rate stands at 186 South Sudanese pounds per dollar, importers have been paying 610 pounds per dollar in the parallel market, officials and currency traders said.
The central bank said lenders must in future use a daily market rate that it will publish based on daily foreign exchange returns from the institutions.
2 Min Read
Central Bank of Egypt s headquarters is seen amid the coronavirus disease (COVID-19) pandemic in downtown Cairo, Egypt February 25, 2021. REUTERS/Mohamed Abd El Ghany
CAIRO (Reuters) - Egypt’s central bank is likely to leave its overnight interest rates on hold on Thursday, a Reuters poll showed, as inflation remained below target and growth appeared to be picking up.
Of 16 analysts polled, 15 believed the Central Bank of Egypt (CBE) would leave rates unchanged at its regular monetary policy committee meeting. One predicted a cut of 50 basis points (bps).
The central bank slashed its benchmark rate by 300 bps last March and another 50 bps each in September and November. The overnight lending rate is now 9.25% and the overnight deposit rate 8.25%, their lowest since July 2014.
3 Min Read
MEXICO CITY (Reuters) - U.S. President Joe Biden’s $1.9 trillion stimulus package will help boost Mexico’s economy and exports but will also create financial market challenges in emerging economies, said Alejandro Diaz de Leon, the governor of Mexico’s central bank.
FILE PHOTO: Mexico s Central Bank Governor Alejandro Diaz de Leon Carrillo speaks during the presentation of the national financial inclusion policy, in the Interactive Museum of Economics (MIDE) in Mexico City, Mexico March 11, 2020. REUTERS/Luisa Gonzalez
The Bank of Mexico’s five-member board will analyze at its next monetary policy meeting the impact of a recent spike in U.S. Treasury bond yields, Diaz de Leon told Reuters in an interview.
By Reuters Staff
2 Min Read
GABORONE (Reuters) - Botswana’s central bank expects inflation to rise above 3% in the second quarter for mainly transitory reasons, and will keep monetary policy accommodative, it said on Thursday.
Annual inflation - running at 2.3% last month - was last within the bank’s 3%-6% target range in September 2019.
It dropped below 1% last year as the COVID-19 pandemic depressed economic activity.
Finance Minister Thapelo Matsheka hiked VAT, increased the fuel levy and introduced a new tax on sugary drinks in a budget speech on Feb. 1, which the central bank expects to drive prices higher.
Despite that prospect, central bank officials said on Thursday that they were not planning to tighten monetary policy, after 100 basis points of rate cuts last year to the current rate of 3.75%.