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A16 LOCAL
Thursday 27 december 2018
Monetary Policy (November 2018)
International reserves
Both the international reserves (+0.7 percent) and official
reserves (+3.1 percent) recorded growth in the first nine
months of 2018. Consequently, the international reserves
and the official reserves reached,respectively, Afl. 1,837.6
million and Afl. 1,700.1 million at end September 2018.
Credit developments
Growth in total commercial bank credit remained posi-
tive (+2.5 percent) in September 2018, compared to De-
cember 2017. This development was mainly driven by
housing mortgages.
Inflation
The 12month average rate of inflation rose to 2.3 percent
in September 2018, compared to −0.4 percent in Septem-
ber 2017, primarily the result of a higher indirect tax rate
per July 1, 2018 and price increases in the transport and
food components. The 12month core inflation (excluding
energy and food) reached 1.2 percent.
During its meeting of November 19, 2018, the Monetary Policy Committee (MPC)2 of
the Centrale Bank van Aruba (CBA) decided to keep the reserve requirement at 11.0 Tourism
percent and to uphold the advance rate at 1.0 percent, after reviewing the most recent During the first nine months of 2018, tourism indicators
economic and monetary data. The following information and analysis were considered development noted upturns, as growth was registered in
in reaching this decision, based on September 2018 data. tourist arrivals (+1.5 percent), visitor nights (+1.6 percent),
and cruise visitor arrivals (+5.8 percent).
Money supply
In September 2018, money supply registered an increase
of Afl. 133.9 million to Afl. 4,373.8 million compared to De-
cember 2017, resulting from expansions in the net domes-
tic assets (+Afl. 94.2 million) and in the net foreign assets
(+Afl. 39.7 million, excluding revaluation differences).q
