By BRIAN NGUGIMore by this AuthorThe maximum cost of loans remains unchanged after the Central Bank of Kenya (CBK) on Monday retained the base lending rate as banks continued to shy from lending due to the legal caps on borrowing rates. Kenya is struggling to contain high inflation, caused mostly by higher food prices, which is outside the monetary control. “The MPC, therefore, decided to retain the Central Bank Rate (CBR) at 10 per cent. The government capped lending rates last September at four percentage points above the Central Bank Rate, saying they were too high and banks had repeatedly failed to lower them. The Central Bank said as a result of the caps, the number of loan applications had increased by 23.4 per cent between August 2016 and April.

Source: Daily Nation May 29, 2017 17:15 UTC