Reserve Bank’s Lesetja Kganyago says no to printing money

Reserve Bank governor Lesetja Kganyago has ruled out printing money to finance the government’s ballooning deficit.

Speaking on Tuesday after delivering a second interest-rate cut in less than a month to provide relief to an economy that is set to sink into a great deep recession as a result of Covid-19, Kganyago said direct financing of government deficits by the central bank was not necessary, would be inflationary and contrary to its legal mandate.