Reserve Bank treads carefully as risks to inflation outlook threaten
The Reserve Bank disappointed the markets on Thursday by failing to cut the repo rate, noting that a number of risks to the inflation outlook had increased amid heightened uncertainty. Three members of the monetary policy committee voted to cut rates, while three opted to stay put. Governor Lesetja Kganyago is assumed to have had the deciding vote. At the last monetary policy committee meeting in July, the Bank cut the repo rate by 25 basis points to 6.75%, sparking hope that this was the start of a rate-cutting cycle. However, Kganyago was emphatic during the news conference on Thursday that the Bank had never said SA was in a cutting cycle; rather, it had emphasised that future decisions would be data dependent.
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