BPR Banque Populaire du Rwanda

Prime Minister (Damien Habumuremyi) and the Governor (Amb. Claver Gatete) pay a surprise visit to Bank Populaire du Rwanda.

World financial news
German 10-year bunds posted their biggest weekly gain this year as signs that global growth is slowing boosted demand for the euro area’s safest assets. Two years notes also rose the most since December after industry data showed euro-region manufacturing and services shrank more than economic forecasts.

Spain’s 10-year yields climbed for a third week after Citigroup Inc. chief economist Willem Buiter said the nation faced an increasing risk of requiring a debt restructuring. Greek securities maturing in February 2023 fell to their lowest since the nation secured the largest debt in history.

“People still aren’t wholeheartedly convinced that all Europe’s problems are solved”, said Eric Wand, a fixed-income strategist at Lloyds bank Corporate Markets in London. “There are still some clear implementation risks around Europe and that’s keeping an underlying bid in bunds”.

Commodity news

Coffee:
Bloomberg reports: Rwanda’s coffee production may climb as much as 20 percent to 24.000 metric tons this year because of good weather and a high yield. Output may rise from 20,000 tons last year. Rwanda exports more than 98% of her (mostly arabica) beans.

Corn/soybeans:
Corn and soybeans extended ralliest to the highest prices since september on speculation that China may boost purchases from the U.S., the biggest producer of both crops. Corn futures in China, the second-biggest consumer, rose to record on speculation supply may be less than expected and that the goverment may continue to allow prices to rise before selling from stockpiles.

Sugar cane:
Sugar climbed to the highest level this month in New York on speculation the European union will need to import more sugar just as the harvest in Brazil, the world’s biggest producer, is set to delayed. The harvest in Brazil’s main prodcution region, will probably start mid-april, 10 days later than last year. The Committee of European Sugar Users had asked the EU to boost sugar supplies by importing 1 million metric tons of sweetener after shortages disrupted food manufacturing. The raw sugar prices rose overnight on news the EU may need an additional 1 million tons of import.

This morning we visited Chuk Hospital in Kigali and met the people who are working for 'Operation Smile'.

We want to give our regards and support to all volunteers who are making it possible to let people smile again! :)

News about the local money market:

The Monetary Policy Comittee (MPC) of the National Bank of Rwanda (BNR) have decided in his meeting on March 16th, the monetary and exchange rate policy implemented to date continued to sustain Rwanda’s macroeconomic stability. Also mentioned was that the finacial sector was sound and resilient to external shocks, inflation remained moderate and the Rwandan franc was stable.
The headline inflation is expected to remain stable in the second quarter of this year as a result of pursuing tight monetary policy, good coordination between the monetary and fiscal policies and other Government policy measures aiming at mitigaiting exogenous supply shocks. Latest inflation of January was at 7.8 percent down from 8.3 percent in December.
In view of this points, the committee decided to maintain a tight monetary policy stance by keeping the Central Bank Rate at 7 percent.