From 12 to 15 January 2009, at Hotel La Palisse Nyandungu, Delegates from East African Community central banks held two technical meetings of Monetary Affairs Committee (MAC) of East African Community.
The first meeting was held from January 12th to 13th 2009. Its task was to edit on the audit report made on MAC achievements and its challenges during 1998-2008 period.
The second meeting was held from January 14th to 15th 2009 and was attended by members of Economic Affairs Subcommittee of MAC. This subcommittee serves as an EAC Central Banks advisory organ on economic matters. Participants shared results on two studies carried out in EAC member countries respectively on “Monetary Transmission Mechanism” and on “Real Exchange Rate misalignment. These results show important similarities in EAC member countries’ economies. During this meeting, participants also reviewed the status of implementation of the 11th MAC decisions of governors, particularly on economic issues.
Participants also exchanged views on the impact of the current global financial crisis on their respective countries economies. They noted that both the financial system and the economy within East African Countries remain strong. They commended initiatives taken by some member countries to set up mechanism allowing monitoring the potential effects of the current global financial crisis and recommended countries that have not yet formed surveillance mechanisms to do the same.
They also recommended to the EAC central banks to strengthen the regulation and the supervision of domestic financial systems with a view to unlocking information content of the off balance sheet transactions in monetary and financial analysis.
National Bank of Rwanda will host in February and March this year other MAC subcommittee meetings, namely financial market, Banking supervision, payment systems and Human Resources Development.
Reports from all those subcommittees will be submitted to the EAC Central Banks Governors meeting scheduled in May this year in Kigali.