National Bank of Ethiopia lifts its policy rate to 16 per cent and scraps the bank credit growth cap

17 October 2026

The Monetary Policy Committee of the National Bank of Ethiopia announced the decisions of its seventh meeting on 13 July 2026.
The policy rate was raised by 1.0 percentage point, taking it to 16 per cent, and the plus or minus 3 percentage point band around the policy rate was left unchanged.
The cap on the annual credit growth of commercial banks was removed in full. The National Bank said this reflects the move to an interest based framework and is not a change in its monetary policy stance.
Targeted additional reserve requirements based on an individual bank's loan to deposit ratio may be applied if credit expansion pressures inflation.
The foreign exchange surrender requirement on goods exports was cut from 50 per cent to 30 per cent, and the foreign exchange commission from 2.5 per cent to 1.5 per cent.
Headline inflation stood at 13.4 per cent in May 2026, against 11.7 per cent in April 2026 and 9.7 per cent in December 2025, with food inflation at 15.0 per cent and non food inflation at 11.1 per cent.
The Governor of the National Bank of Ethiopia is Eyob Tekalign Tolina.