Investors shrug off Reserve Bank fears
The Bank's primary mandate is enshrined in the constitution
South Africans may harbour fears about the independence of the Reserve Bank after the ANC affirmed its position to nationalise the Bank. But international investors view the rhetoric as political noise. The security of the Bank's independence and its credibility have been in the spotlight months after Turkey's central bank faced its own test of independence, plunging the lira and other emerging-market currencies into a tailspin. Last year, the delay by Turkish monetary policymakers to hike interest rates amid inflation of nearly 18% raised concern that the country's president was tightening his grip on what was once one of the developing world's more respected central banks. Meanwhile, in March last year, New Zealand added a requirement that its central bank consider employment growth when making monetary policy decisions. President Cyril Ramaphosa said at a briefing this week that the ANC had simply expressed a "wish" and an "ambition" in its pre-election manifesto, released at the...
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