https://www.polity.org.za
Deepening Democracy through Access to Information
Home / News / All News RSS ← Back
Africa|Cutting
Africa|Cutting
africa|cutting
Close

Email this article

separate emails by commas, maximum limit of 4 addresses

Sponsored by

Close

Article Enquiry

Sustained low CPI may spur South Africa rate cuts, Kganyago says

Close

Embed Video

Sustained low CPI may spur South Africa rate cuts, Kganyago says

Reserve Bank Governor Lesetja Kganyago
Photo by Reuters
Reserve Bank Governor Lesetja Kganyago

2nd September 2024

By: Bloomberg

SAVE THIS ARTICLE      EMAIL THIS ARTICLE

Font size: -+

South Africa needs to sustain a low inflation rate to justify a change in the central bank’s monetary policy stance, Governor Lesetja Kganyago said.

Consumer-price growth was 4.6% in July, the lowest level in three years. That took the spread between the South African Reserve Bank’s policy benchmark and the annual inflation rate to an 18-year high and fuelled bets that the central bank’s monetary policy committee will start its interest-rate cutting cycle when it meets on Sept. 19. Forward-rate agreements – used to speculate on borrowing costs – are fully pricing in a 25 basis-point reduction in the key rate this month.

Advertisement

While the latest inflation data is welcome, it reflects historic price changes, Kganyago said in an interview with State-owned SAfm radio on Monday. “What South Africa needs is not just lower inflation, but sustained low inflation,” he said.

The central bank seeks to stabilise inflation and anchor price-growth expectations at the midpoint of its 3%-6% target range. Its held the key interest at 8.25% since May 2003.

Advertisement

While a decline in the inflation rate in July 2023 generated similar optimism to the latest data about a potential easing in monetary policy, Kganyago advised caution.

“It was this time last year that we had an inflation reading that was at 4.7% and there was excitement around it,” he said. “Lower inflation is always welcome, but what was needed to be seen was sustained low inflation, and indeed, the South African Reserve Bank was proved to have been correct, because a few months later, inflation creeped up.”

Kganyago has repeatedly said the MPC will only be comfortable lowering borrowing costs when inflation eases sustainably toward 4.5%. The central bank’s monetary policy is “prudent” rather than conservative, he said.

EMAIL THIS ARTICLE      SAVE THIS ARTICLE

To subscribe email subscriptions@creamermedia.co.za or click here
To advertise email advertising@creamermedia.co.za or click here

Comment Guidelines

About

Polity.org.za is a product of Creamer Media.
www.creamermedia.co.za

Other Creamer Media Products include:
Engineering News
Mining Weekly
Research Channel Africa

Read more

Subscriptions

We offer a variety of subscriptions to our Magazine, Website, PDF Reports and our photo library.

Subscriptions are available via the Creamer Media Store.

View store

Advertise

Advertising on Polity.org.za is an effective way to build and consolidate a company's profile among clients and prospective clients. Email advertising@creamermedia.co.za

View options

Email Registration Success

Thank you, you have successfully subscribed to one or more of Creamer Media’s email newsletters. You should start receiving the email newsletters in due course.

Our email newsletters may land in your junk or spam folder. To prevent this, kindly add newsletters@creamermedia.co.za to your address book or safe sender list. If you experience any issues with the receipt of our email newsletters, please email subscriptions@creamermedia.co.za