Kenya's central bank cuts interest rate to 8.5 pct

(Reuters) - Kenya's central bank said on Monday said it had cut its key CBR interest rate to 8.5 percent from 10 percent.

"The Monetary Policy Advisory Committee (MPAC) held its fifteenth meeting on Wednesday ... and advised the CBK (Central Bank of Kenya) to set the CBR at 8.5 percent," a weekly bulletin from the central bank said. "The Central Bank concurred with the recommendation."


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U.K. Pound Declines Against Dollar on Interest Rates, Bond Sell-Off

(Bloomberg) -- The U.K. pound dropped against the
dollar for a third day, heading for a weekly decline, after the
Bank of England kept interest rates unchanged at its monthly
meeting yesterday.

The pound fell as a global sell-off in bonds helped the
dollar appreciate against 14 of the 16 most-traded currencies. It
slumped the most in three months versus its U.S. counterpart
yesterday after the Monetary Policy Committee, led by Governor
Mervyn King, kept the Bank Rate at 5.5 percent, as predicted by 58
of 62 economists in a Bloomberg News survey.


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Rand slightly firmer before rates verdict

(Reuters) - South Africa's rand opened slightly firmer versus the dollar on Thursday and traders said the currency would be rangebound before the Monetary Policy Committee's (MPC) interest rate decision around 1330 GMT.

The rand was trading at 7.1666 versus the dollar at 0645 GMT, about 0.3 percent firmer than its New York close of 7.2035 on Wednesday.


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