The Bank of Angola has maintained its key lending rate at 19.50% since May last year.

The central bank has kept policy tight to try to rein in inflation, which has been gradually declining but was still at more than 22% in annual terms in April.

Angola hopes to transition to an inflation-targeting framework, opens new tab, which would involve setting a specific inflation target to guide monetary policy.

Governor Manuel Tiago Dias said the central bank was for now sticking to its forecast that inflation would end the year at 17.5%.

"When we look at inflation up to April, we see that there has been a fairly substantial year-on-year reduction. Our projections for May and June indicate that we will probably see a (continued) downwards trend in inflation," he told a press conference.

Last week the International Monetary Fund cut Angola's preliminary growth outlook for 2025 to 2.4% from an initial 3%, citing lower prices of oil and tightening external financing conditions.

--Reuters--