Following the bi weekly tradition, Malangu Kabedi Mbuyi, the Governor of the Central Bank of Congo (BCC), gave a brief introduction to the Council on the economic situation and prospects of Congo. She said that the Congolese economy should maintain steady growth in 2024, higher than the average level in sub Saharan Africa, and the inflation rate should be on a downward trend.

In terms of the goods and services market, Malangu Kabedi Mbui pointed out that the inflation rate slowed down in the second week of July, with a weekly inflation rate of 0.31%, compared to 0.39% in the previous week. The minutes of the meeting read out by government spokesperson Patrick Muyaya stated that the inflation rate has significantly slowed down from the beginning of 2024 to the present, at 8.16%, compared to 16.08% in the same period of 2023.

She continued, as of July 21, 2024, the implementation of the treasury plan resulted in a deficit of 107.2 billion francs, national revenue of 494.9 billion French francs, and expenditures of 602 billion French francs.

In the foreign exchange market, the indicative exchange rate for Congo is 2790.09 and the parallel exchange rate is 2876.57, corresponding to a weekly appreciation rate of 2.14% and a weekly depreciation rate of 0.38%, respectively. The meeting minutes also show that the Central Bank of Congo intervened by selling $50 million, which led to the observed appreciation.

One of the six commitments made by President Felix Tshisekedi during his second five-year term inauguration was to increase the purchasing power of the Congolese people by stabilizing the exchange rate. The government of Sumingwa is working hard to take appropriate measures to control inflation, stabilize the domestic currency, and reduce the cost of household baskets. The exchange rate varies between 2800 and 2850 francs per US dollar.

——Excerpted from "Today's Congo"