The South African Reserve Bank (Sarb) is anticipated to lower the benchmark repo rate by another 25 basis points on Thursday, to 7.75%, after inflation fell below the bank’s target range.
Speaking on VOC Breakfast on Wednesday morning, Economist and founding director at Centre for Economic Development and Transformation Duma Gqubule said he does not agree to any decision made by the reserve bank.
“I have to say that our inflation rate is 3.8%, our prime lending rate is 11.5% so what we call the real after inflation lending rate is 7.7% that is probably one of the highest in the world. It is said that South Africa has the second highest unemployment rate, and our economy is not growing at all, so I do not understand why our repo rates are not cut even lower,” he added.
Listen to full audio below:
