Mozambique: Prime Rate to remain unchanged at 23.50% in May

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Mozambique: Prime Rate to remain unchanged at 23.50% in May

3:17 CAT | 08 May 2023

The Bank of Mozambique (BdM) and the Mozambican Association of Banks (AMB) have decided to maintain unchanged the Reference Rate, the Cost Premium and the Prime Rate to be in force at credit institutions in the country for this month of May.

The Prime Rate, therefore, remains at 23.50%, the two entities announced on April 28.

In the same period last year, the Prime Rate had been set at 19.10%.

The Reference Rate is the average rate measured by the volume of Interbank Money Market (IMM) overnight maturity transactions (currently set at 17.25%), namely (i) transactions between the BdM and commercial banks under the MIMO policy rate, currently set at 17.25%; (ii) repo operations; and (iii) liquidity swap operations between commercial banks. The Bank of Mozambique recalculates the Reference Rate every month.

The Cost Premium is the margin representing the risk elements of banking activity not reflected in interbank market operations, which is added to the Reference Rate to make up the Prime Rate of the Mozambican financial system. The AMB calculates the Cost Premium every quarter, using a method that considers the country’s rating, the credit default ratio, the cleaned-up credit ratio and the reserve ratio for liabilities in national currency. The Cost Premium herein follows from the AMB’s assessment of these factors, as communicated to the Bank of Mozambique through the official letter 17/DIR/AMB/2021, of March 25.

The Prime Rate of the Mozambican financial system is the single benchmark rate for variable interest rate credit operations and results from the sum of the Reference Rate and the Cost Premium. This rate applies to contracted credit operations (new, renewals and renegotiations) between credit institutions and financial companies and their customers, plus a margin (spread), which is added to or subtracted from the Prime Rate after analysing the risk of each particular credit category or operation.

Source: Diário Económico