Mauritania’s central bank has raised its main interest rate to 7.25% and increased commercial banks’ compulsory reserve ratio from 8% to 15%. The governor’s decision was issued on 30 October following the monetary policy council’s deliberations on 28 October. The measures became public in local coverage on 31 October.
The reserve requirement is particularly consequential: banks must keep a larger share of eligible deposits at the central bank instead of deploying those funds elsewhere. For institutions with limited spare liquidity, that creates pressure to seek additional funding or become more selective about lending. Import finance, working-capital facilities and smaller businesses could be exposed to tighter conditions.
The council’s minutes identify inflation and surplus liquidity as joint problems. Annual inflation reached 9.3% in September, up from 8.5% in July and 8.9% in August; food accounted for about 6.8 percentage points of September’s increase. Banks’ free reserves stood at 4.35 billion ouguiyas on 27 October, against a target of one billion.
The council acknowledged that monetary tightening cannot directly resolve the supply shocks behind part of the price increase. Its objective is to stop those increases spreading more broadly through the economy. Households therefore face a difficult combination: purchasing power is already under pressure, while borrowing conditions may tighten before inflation eases.