Central bank lifts rates to 6%

NAMIBIA’S central bank hiked interest rates by 25 basis points to 6 percent yesterday as it seeks to contain strong household credit growth, which it said was putting pressure on the country’s reserves. Credit demand from households as well the business sector swelled by 1.4 percent to 15.3 percent for the first half of this year, compared with 13.9 percent during the second half of last year. “The growth in household credit was mainly dominated by instalment credit, overdrafts and other loans and advances, which regrettably are also used to finance unproductive imported luxury goods,” the Bank of Namibia said yesterday. The central bank said, however, that the prospects for economic growth for the remainder of the year were “encouraging”. – Reuters