Nairobi, March 17 -- East African central banks are facing a fresh wave of rate hikes to contain inflationary pressures emanating from surging shipping and insurance costs for vessels diverting from the Suez Canal as a result of the Middle East conflict which continues to disrupt the flow of goods through the Red Sea.

The Bank of Uganda (BoU) recently convened a Monetary Policy Committee (MPC) meeting that increased its policy rate by 50 basis points to 10 percent to deal with the new inflation threats.

This signals likely rate hikes in Kenya and Tanzania, whose 15 percent and 10 percent, respectively, of foreign trade goes through the Egyptian waterway, according to data by the United Nations Conference on Trade and Development (Unctad...