MBABANE – The Central Bank of Eswatini (CBE) Governor Dr Phil Mnisi says the economy is forecasted to grow by 4.7 per cent in 2023 and 4.9 per cent in 2024.
Mnisi highlighted the country’s headline consumer inflation decelerated to 4.0 per cent in August 2023 from 4.5 per cent the previous month. Decreases were observed in prices indices for, “food and non-alcoholic beverages which decreased from 13.0 per cent in July 2023 to 10.7 per cent in August 2023; ‘transport’ which fell from-2.4 per cent in July 2023 to -2.7 per cent and ‘health’ which decreased from 1.0 per cent in July 2023 to 0.8 per cent.
He said these decreases were mainly counteracted by increases in the price indices for ‘clothing and footwear’ which increased to 6.0 per cent in August 2023 from 5.2 per cent the previous month and ‘furnishing and household equipment which grew from 6.5 per cent in July 2023 to 7.2 per cent in August 2023.’
Credit
Credit extended to the private sector grew by 0.8 per cent month-on-month in July 2023, and 9.7 per cent year-on-year to reach E18.3 billion. However, credit extended to households stood at E8.1 billion at the end of July 2023 depicting a marginal month-on-month decline of 0.3 per cent.
