National Bank of Ethiopia Maintains Policy Rate at 16 Percent

The National Bank of Ethiopia (NBE) has decided to maintain its policy interest rate at 16 percent following its eighth Monetary Policy Committee meeting on November 3, 2026. Despite a slight ease in food inflation, overall headline inflation remains at 14.9 percent, well above the single-digit target. The central bank plans to absorb excess liquidity from the banking system through open-market operations to curb inflationary pressures.

The NBE expects inflation to remain in the double digits for the next six months. The committee noted that rapid growth in reserve money, driven partly by the bank's gold purchase operations, necessitates these ongoing monetary measures. The bank will also continue to monitor credit expansion and may impose additional reserve requirements on individual banks if loan growth threatens their inflation targets.