{"id":54190,"date":"2025-05-15T13:58:33","date_gmt":"2025-05-15T13:58:33","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/new.igihe.com\/rwanda-s-central-bank-to-begin-investing-in-gold-starting-july\/"},"modified":"2025-05-17T13:33:01","modified_gmt":"2025-05-17T13:33:01","slug":"rwanda-s-central-bank-to-begin-investing-in-gold-starting-july","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/new.igihe.com\/english\/rwanda-s-central-bank-to-begin-investing-in-gold-starting-july\/","title":{"rendered":"Rwanda\u2019s central bank to begin investing in gold starting July"},"content":{"rendered":"

Rwanda Central Bank Governor Soraya Hakuziyaremye made the revelation during a press conference on Thursday, May 15, following a recent Monetary Policy Committee (MPC) meeting.<\/p>\n

Addressing growing interest in gold among central banks in the East African Community (EAC) region, Governor Hakuziyaremye said Rwanda\u2019s central bank conducted a detailed study on incorporating gold as an additional reserve asset. <\/p>\n

The move follows a trend observed by the EAC Central Bank Monetary Affairs Committee, which noted several regional central banks considering gold to diversify and strengthen their reserves.<\/p>\n

\u201cGiven gold\u2019s ability to counter shocks in the financial market and serve as a hedge against external uncertainties, we have decided to explore it as a new asset class,\u201d Governor Hakuziyaremye explained. <\/p>\n

The central bank boss emphasised that capital preservation, liquidity, and reasonable returns remain the primary objectives for the central bank\u2019s foreign reserves investments.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe good news is that gold meets these criteria at this time, which makes our consideration positive,\u201d she said. <\/p>\n

The central bank has already secured board approval to include gold investments in its portfolio.<\/p>\n

However, Governor Hakuziyaremye highlighted that gold is a new asset for the bank, and further updates on acquisition volumes and expected returns will be communicated by the end of the current financial year.<\/p>\n

\u201cThis is a learning process, and as we continue benchmarking with our peers, we plan to start adding gold to our reserves from July 2025,\u201d she said.<\/p>\n

Meanwhile, the bank maintained the lending rate at 6.5 percent, a level Governor Soraya noted is aimed at keeping inflation within the targeted 2 to 8 percent range.<\/p>\n

Commenting on the economic outlook, she said headline inflation rose to 6.7 percent in the first quarter of 2025, up from 5.2 percent in the previous quarter, largely driven by increases in core and fresh food prices. Core inflation climbed to 6.1 percent, while fresh food inflation surged to 11.2 percent, mainly due to a base effect from unusually low prices in early 2024 and rising meat prices.<\/p>\n

Despite the uptick, inflation remains within the medium-term target range and is expected to average 6.5 percent in 2025 before easing to 3.9 percent in 2026.<\/p>\n

\u201cInflationary risks remain, particularly from global geopolitical tensions and shifting trade policies,\u201d the central bank governor warned, but emphasized that the current rate should continue to anchor inflation expectations.<\/p>\n

The recent MPC meeting also noted Rwanda\u2019s ongoing economic resilience, with the Composite Index of Economic Activity (CIEA) registering a 9.3 percent year-on-year increase in Q1 2025, supported by robust industrial and services performance. The economy grew by an impressive 8.9 percent in 2024, buoyed by a rebound in agriculture and strong domestic demand.<\/p>\n

However, Rwanda\u2019s trade deficit widened by 10.8 percent in Q1 2025, as merchandise exports fell by 3.0 percent\u2014mainly due to declining re-exports\u2014while imports rose 5.8 percent, driven by increased demand for machinery and raw materials. This put pressure on the Rwandan franc, which depreciated by 2.46 percent against the U.S. dollar by the end of April.<\/p>\n

\"NBR<\/figure>\n
\"Addressing<\/figure>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

The National Bank of Rwanda (NBR) has announced plans to start investing in gold as part of its foreign exchange reserves portfolio beginning July 2025.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":131,"featured_media":2000087190,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[8],"tags":[75],"byline":[192],"hashtag":[],"class_list":["post-54190","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-business","tag-homenews","byline-wycliffe-nyamasege"],"bylines":[{"id":192,"name":"Wycliffe Nyamasege","slug":"wycliffe-nyamasege","description":"","image":{"id":0,"url":"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/?s=96&d=mm&f=y&r=g","alt":"Default avatar","title":"Default avatar","caption":"","mime_type":"image\/jpeg","sizes":[]},"user_id":131}],"contributors":[{"id":192,"name":"Wycliffe Nyamasege","slug":"wycliffe-nyamasege","description":"","image":{"id":0,"url":"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/?s=96&d=mm&f=y&r=g","alt":"Default avatar","title":"Default avatar","caption":"","mime_type":"image\/jpeg","sizes":[]},"user_id":131}],"featured_image":{"id":2000087190,"url":"https:\/\/en-images.igihe.com\/IMG\/logo\/screen-shot-2025-03-04-at-10.44.31-pm_1_.png","alt":"","caption":"","mime_type":"image\/png","width":0,"height":0,"sizes":{"thumbnail":{"url":"https:\/\/en-images.igihe.com\/IMG\/logo\/screen-shot-2025-03-04-at-10.44.31-pm_1_.png","width":1,"height":1},"medium":{"url":"https:\/\/en-images.igihe.com\/IMG\/logo\/screen-shot-2025-03-04-at-10.44.31-pm_1_.png","width":1,"height":1},"medium_large":{"url":"https:\/\/en-images.igihe.com\/IMG\/logo\/screen-shot-2025-03-04-at-10.44.31-pm_1_.png","width":1,"height":1},"large":{"url":"https:\/\/en-images.igihe.com\/IMG\/logo\/screen-shot-2025-03-04-at-10.44.31-pm_1_.png","width":1,"height":1},"full":{"url":"https:\/\/en-images.igihe.com\/IMG\/logo\/screen-shot-2025-03-04-at-10.44.31-pm_1_.png","width":0,"height":0}}},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/new.igihe.com\/english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/54190","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/new.igihe.com\/english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/new.igihe.com\/english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/new.igihe.com\/english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/131"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/new.igihe.com\/english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=54190"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/new.igihe.com\/english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/54190\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/new.igihe.com\/english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/2000087190"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/new.igihe.com\/english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=54190"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/new.igihe.com\/english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=54190"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/new.igihe.com\/english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=54190"},{"taxonomy":"byline","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/new.igihe.com\/english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/byline?post=54190"},{"taxonomy":"hashtag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/new.igihe.com\/english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/hashtag?post=54190"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}