TUNIS (Reuters) -Tunisia’s central bank held its key interest rate unchanged at 8%, it announced on Friday, saying that keeping the interest rate at the current level will continue to push inflation downward.
In December, the bank raised the key interest rate by 75 basis points to 8% to combat high inflation, marking its third rate hike last year.
The annual inflation rate eased to 9.6% in May from 10.1% in April, and a high of 10.4% in February.
“The current monetary trends would contribute to pushing down inflation rates during the coming period”, the bank said in statement.
Global credit ratings agency Fitch downgraded Tunisia deeper into “junk” territory to ‘CCC-‘ from ‘CCC+’ last week, citing uncertainty around the country’s ability to mobilise sufficient funding to meet its financing requirements.
The central bank warned in its statement that Fitch decision will affect the country’s ability to secure foreign financing on easy terms.
(Reporting by Tarek AmaraEditing by Frank Jack Daniel and Frances Kerry)
