A. Monetary and Financial Sector Policies
The APR Panel recommended in this specific area that the capacity to carry out analytical work
related to decisions and management of monetary policy be strengthened (i); that additional
measures be introduced to broaden and deepen the expansion of financial services for zones
that as yet do not have access to such services, and to reduce the interest rates (ii); that
transactional charges of banking in general be reviewed and updated, and in particular ATM
transaction charges (iii); that the process of establishing a Development Bank be initiated in
order to guarantee access to credit for local business (iv); that additional measures are
introduced to cushion the economy from the adverse impacts of the current global economic
crisis (v).
115. The monetary authority – the Bank of Mozambique – has been implementing a series of
measures in order to improve the performance of monetary policy around its principal short
term objectives – currency stability, understood to be the maintenance of a low and stable
inflation rate, in a context of financial sector stability – and medium term objectives – economic
growth with low inflation.
116. In this way, according to the Bank of Mozambique (2011), the model for forecasting inflation in
the short and medium term was improved, the communication of policy decisions was
strengthened, liquidity forecasts were improved, and the determination of interventions in
interbank markets was updated, based on international best practice, in order to regulate the
liquidity in the system as well as controlling the Money Base – operational variable in monetary
policy – and detailed analysis of prices and their sensitivity in relation to risks associated with
current and potential shocks.
117. Improvements in forecasting are underpinned also by the investment that has been made in
professional technical training and by improvements in the quality of the statistics and
availability of new indicators that were incorporated into the forecasting models.
118. The mechanism for the communication of monetary policy decisions also improved, through:
(i)
The decision making process moved to being based on a wider range of information,
structured in a single document, the Monetary Policy Document, which covers the
principal economic and financial developments in the international, regional and
domestic arenas, as well as presenting short and medium term projections and the
respective risks;
(ii)
The schedule of meetings where monetary policy decisions are taken started being
published in advance on the website of the Bank of Mozambique;
(iii)
Monetary policy decisions started to be communicated to interested parties on a
monthly basis, through a press release posted on the website of the BM the same day
that decisions are taken;
(iv)
The monthly press release includes ever more new economic and financial
information; the Bank started giving quarterly press conferences, to disseminate the
content of decisions taken, among other aspects;
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