The recent monetary policy statement issued by the Bank of Sierra Leone has revealed that inflationary pressures have remained persistent since their previous MPC Meeting due to the demand and supply side factors.

The Policy statement affirmed that headline inflation edged up from 44.3 percent in May 2023 to 44.81 percent in June 2023 and increased significantly further to 50.94 – percent in August 2023.

The monetary statement further pointed out that headline inflationary pressures continue to be largely driven by both food inflation and non-food inflation.

The Monetary Policy Committee of the Bank of Sierra Leone met on 28 September 2023 in a meeting chaired by the Acting Bank Governor, Dr. Ibrahim L. Stevens. After a careful assessment of recent macroeconomic and financial developments in the global and domestic economy and the implications for domestic inflation and growth, the MPC decided to raise the Monetary Policy Rate [MPR] by 2.0 Percentage points, to 21.25.