(Bloomberg) -- Kenya’s central bank held its key interest rate for the fourth straight meeting as policy measures including 150 basis points of cuts are having the intended impact on the economy.

The monetary policy committee maintained the rate at 7%, Governor Patrick Njoroge said Tuesday in a statement. That matched the estimate of all five economists in a Bloomberg survey.

Key Insights:

• Inflation remained at 4.4% in August and is expected to stay inside the central bank’s target range of 2.5% to 7.5% in the near-term, Njoroge said. That is thanks to lower food prices, the impact of the reduction of value-added tax and muted demand pressures.
• The MPC decision comes a day before the release of second-quarter gross domestic product data. The economy probably contracted by 2.6% in the three months through June, according to the median estimate of six economists in a Bloomberg survey. However, economic indicators for the third quarter point to a strong recovery in activity, Njoroge said.

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