South African bonds were weaker on Thursday morning as the market awaited the Reserve Bank’s interest rate announcement later in the day.Local bonds showed little reaction to the decision by the US Federal Reserve announcement on Wednesday. The Fed kept interest rates unchanged and announced the start of a winding-down process of its inflated $4.5-trillion balance sheet, which will entail the buyback of bond securities, starting at a monthly $10bn. The bonds will not be sold into the market, but will effectively be "rolled off".Locally, the market expectation is that the Reserve Bank will reduce the repo rate by another 25 basis points to 6.5%, as the inflation outlook improves.Consumer price inflation for August came in better than expected on Wednesday, when Statistics SA reported that inflation rose to 4.8% in August from a year earlier. The market had expected 4.9%.Sasfin fixed income trader Alvin Chawasema said the inflation outlook provided room for the Bank to further ease mo...
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