Mozambique: Reference interest rate for credit remains at 24.10% for the fifth straight month
Rádio Moçambique
Mozambican President Filipe Nyusi made a surprise visit on Friday afternoon to the branch of the South African supermarket chain, Shoprite, in the northern city of Nampula.
As he toured the largest supermarket in the northern provinces, Nyusi said he was pleased at Shoprite’s price stability, and the stocks the shop has in readiness for the coming festive season.
“Hearing about things is not the same as seeing with your own eyes how people are living”, the President told journalists at the end of his visit. “It was good to see the products that are on sale here. I wanted most to understand about wheat, rice, sugar and the price trends. It was also to understand the supply capacity. Shoprite has at least assured us that it is doing everything to ensure that people have good holidays”.
Nyusi hoped that the current prices will be maintained – indeed, the supermarket manager told him that some prices will be reduced. He said that as from 15 December Shoprite will be promoting some goods, cutting their prices. The manager described this as an act of “social responsibility”, to ensure that Nampula residents can have a tranquil festive season.
“I was pleased because I could also talk to the clients”, said Nyusi. They had confirmed to him that the Nampula Shoprite prices are stable.
He believed that the prices should now move in a direction favourable to citizens, since the Mozambican currency, the metical, has stopped depreciating. Indeed, over the past fortnight the metical has staged a recovery against both the US dollar and the South African rand.
Opportunist tradesmen have been citing “the rise in the dollar” as an excuse for hiking prices, even for goods that are made entirely in Mozambique. In mid-November the exchange rate in some segments of the market had reached almost 60 meticais to the dollar and four meticais to the rand. But on Friday, commercial banks were quoting a rate of 48 meticais to the dollar and 3.1 meticais to the rand.
Nyusi stressed that his visit was not intended to instruct any shop or supermarket to act in a way contrary to the normal commercial rules of business. Rather, he hoped to encourage “everyone to participate in the solution as far as they can”.
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