No concrete plans to expand Reserve Bank mandate: Mboweni

Finance Minister, Tito Mboweni, has denied any concrete plans to expand the Reserve Bank’s mandate, despite media being told that that was the case during a briefing of the party’s National Executive Committee (NEC) Lekgotla.

African National Congress (ANC) Secretary-General Ace Magashule on Tuesday said the governing party’s NEC resolved at its latest Lekgotla that the Reserve Bank’s mandate should be expanded.

However, Mboweni said in a statement late on Tuesday that government determines the mandate of the Reserve Bank, implying that the political party’s NEC has little say in that regard.

The ANC also says it wants to almost halve unemployment in the next five years.

Stats SA on Tuesday revealed that GDP contracted by 3.2% causing the rand to weaken by around 1% against a basket of major currencies.

The ANC’s Pule Mabe says, “Those are discussions that are ongoing in the organisation as part of exploring the different options. It is in our interest that the central bank is stable, it continues to discharge its own mandate and makes a positive contribution on the kind of growth that we want to see in the country. At the right time when we have clearly formulated a view on how all of these things are going to be approached, we’ll be able to communicate and convey our message. We are quite confident now and happy with the work that the central bank is doing to try and make sure that we achieve the levels of stability required but we also boost investor confidence as well.”

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