- Decision
- Maintain
- Rate change
- 0 bps
- key policy rate
- 25%
The Central Bank of Congo’s Monetary Policy Committee on 15 April 2025 left its policy stance unchanged, holding the benchmark rate at 25 % and keeping reserve-requirement ratios at 13 % for sight deposits and 0 % for term deposits in local currency, and at 13 % and 12 % respectively for foreign-currency deposits, judging that sustained disinflation and a broadly stable Congolese franc offset mounting domestic and external risks. The key rate has been steady at 25 % since at least January 2025. Annual headline inflation eased to 10.1 % in March from 21.5 % a year earlier, while first-quarter franc depreciation was limited to 0.6 % compared with 4.1 % in the same period of 2024, outcomes the committee attributes to tight liquidity management and stronger fiscal-monetary coordination amid continued solid economic activity. Externally, the CPM cited ongoing Russia-Ukraine and Middle East conflicts and higher US tariffs as factors that could slow global growth and rekindle inflation, posing downside risks to the Democratic Republic of Congo’s outlook. The committee pledged heightened monitoring of internal and external developments and stands ready to act if conditions deteriorate, while urging faster structural reforms to diversify the economy.
Rate evolution
The Central Bank of the Congo shifted from a broadly restrictive stance to easing, with the policy rate falling 1,000 basis points from 25% in July 2025 to 15.0% in January 2026 after a fourth-quarter pivot toward accommodation. In July, it held the rate as macroeconomic stability strengthened, inflation slowed and the Congolese franc stabilised, but it still stressed prudence because of rising uncertainty from armed conflict and global geopolitical and trade tensions. By late 2025, disinflation had intensified and the franc appreciated markedly as foreign-exchange intervention, reserve-requirement reform, a more transparent foreign-exchange market and better liquidity management took effect, prompting lower reserve requirements to address tighter bank liquidity while the policy rate was kept at 17.5% in December. In January, with inflation at 2.27%, well below the 7.0% medium-term objective, and growth judged robust, the committee cut the policy rate by 250 basis points and said easing begun in the last quarter of 2025 would continue, while projecting controlled inflation and exchange-rate stability but still monitoring geopolitical tensions, tariffs and liquidity closely.