The violence that disrupted SA’s key supply chains negated a strong economic recovery in the first quarter and prevented an upward revision of full-year growth forecasts, the Reserve Bank said on Thursday as it kept its benchmark interest rate at a record low.

In a decision in line with the median of 18 estimates in a Bloomberg survey, governor Lesetja Kganyago and the other members of the monetary policy committee (MPC) kept the repo rate at 3.5%, the lowest official rate for about five decades. Speaking after the decision, Kganyago said the Bank had been set to revise growth forecasts higher, but the violence had prevented that...

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