Growth in borrowing by households and companies advanced from a revised 7.9% in the previous month, the Pretoria- based Reserve Bank said on its website on Thursday.
The median estimate of 15 economists surveyed by Bloomberg was 8.8%. The South African Reserve Bank has kept its benchmark interest rate at 5% since a 50 basis-point cut in July.
Inflation has accelerated to near the top of the bank's 3% to 6% target range, giving the bank little room to provide further stimulus even as economic growth slowed to an annualised 0.9% in the first quarter, the slowest pace since a recession in 2009.
The broad M3 measure of money supply rose 10% in April from a year earlier compared with a revised 8.5% in March, the central bank said.
The median estimate in a Bloomberg survey was 9.2%. – Bloomberg