Economists say they expect the Reserve Bank’s Monetary Policy Committee to keep the repo rate unchanged at its upcoming meeting this week.
Forecasts indicate that domestic inflation will likely stay within the target range, with an expected average of five percent this year.
They further say the rise in inflation in the first months of the year was driven mostly by once-off increases in a few isolated categories, rather than a widespread rebound in price pressures.
However, some economists project a decline in the interest rates in the latter half of this year.
Annabel Bishop is the Chief Economist at Investec, “South Africa sees its MPC decision this week and interest rates are expected to remain unchanged. The South African Reserve Bank seeks to get the CPI inflation at the mid-point of the inflation target range which is 4.5 percent and keep it there and inflation print so far this year has shown is about five percent. We continue to expect that CPI inflation will fall at the second half of this year to 4 .5 percent mark and therefore allow interest rates stats in the second half of 2024.”
