DUMA GQUBULE: It’s time to refresh the MPC
Hiking interest rates 50bp is sheer madness and shows the urgency of changing the Reserve Bank’s mandate
The Reserve Bank’s decision to hike interest rates by 50 basis points to 8.25% is madness in an economy that has not fully recovered from the Covid shock and has now been felled by a second shock of the worst power blackouts in history. The Bank has gone rogue, and the time has come to replace the members of its monetary policy committee (MPC) with people who will empathise with the pain of millions of South Africans.
The country needs a developmental central bank with a mandate to target GDP growth, employment and inflation, and that expands its policy toolkit to get South Africa out of its worst post-apartheid economic crisis. There must be co-ordination of monetary, fiscal, and industrial policies, which has implications for the Bank’s independence...
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