Kenya expects to finalise a deal with the International Monetary Fund within two months and the lender is not insisting on a removal of the interest rate cap as a precondition for a new deal, finance minister Henry Rotich said on Thursday. The east African country is discussing a new standby credit facility with the IMF. Rotich also said a draft of the new IMF agreement no longer made abolishing the interest rate cap a precondition and would focus on financial sector reforms instead. Private sector credit growth has been sluggish since the government capped commercial lending rates at four percentage points above the central bank rate in 2016. Rotich said he was aiming to bring down debt servicing costs in the next few years to 12-16%.

Source: The Star May 17, 2019 06:22 UTC