The Reserve Bank of Malawi (RBM) announced a reduction in the official interest rate from 15 percent to 13 percent because of a positive environment prevailing in the economy.

“As you know, inflation rate has been stable for sometime and it has come down to 7.5 percent now. We don’t envisage the inflation to go up in the near future so we think the fundamentals are just right for a reduction in the bank rate,” said RBM spokesperson Samuel Malitoni.

The bank rate was last adjusted in 2007 when it moved from 20 percent while inflation was at 7.3 percent.

In 2006, it was moved from 25 percent to 20 percent when inflation was at 10.1 percent.