It is hard to imagine that the great Argentinian footballer Diego Maradona could have anything in common with monetary policy, but he is a useful metaphor for the trick the SA Reserve Bank hopes to pull off in its bid to have SA’s inflation target lowered to 3%.

Emboldened by the Bank’s success in shifting actual inflation and inflation expectations from a sticky 6% to 4.5% over the past few years, without having to hike rates or sacrifice growth unduly, governor Lesetja Kganyago thinks it’s high time for SA to lower the 3%-6% target band to a 3%-point target...