Angola

Angola's central bank, one of the few central banks to have maintained rates last year, once again kept its basic interest rate steady but said the need to "implement a prudent monetary policy of a restrictive nature is evident during the year 2021" to reach its goal of lowering inflation to single digits in 2022.

Fitch Ratings has downgraded Angola's Long-Term Foreign-Currency Issuer Default Rating (IDR) to 'B-' from 'B'. The Outlook is Stable.

Angola's central bank cut its benchmark BNA rate by a further 25 basis points to 15.50 percent and said this was based on the fact that "inflation continued on its downward trajectory, as well and the evolution of the monetary base in national currency, the monetary policy operational variable, which contracted 0.54 percent in the last 12 months."

The recently created Angolan stock exchange Bolsa de Dívida e Valores de Angola (Bodiva) will proceed to its first IPO by end 2019, its director Patricio Vilar, announced on May 2, 2019.