South African Reserve Bank Governor Tito Mboweni said on Wednesday higher energy and food prices were leading to wider inflation, and again urged consumers to live ”within their means”.
Monetary authorities had to guard against the second-round effects of rising prices, he said in a speech in the remote northern town of Haenertsburg.
”If you remove inflationary pressures [coming] from food and energy, inflation is still going upwards. It shows we have second-round effects that emanate from food and energy,” he said.
”If we don’t do anything to contain that, we [will] have a big problem with CPIX [consumer inflation less mortgage costs] going forward.”
The Reserve Bank raised its repo rate by 50 basis points to 10% last week, bringing rate rises to three percentage points since June last year as it tackles inflation above its 3% to 6% target range.
Targeted CPIX inflation stood at 6,4% year-on-year in June, the third consecutive monthly breach of the band, and the central bank has forecast the measure will stay outside the range until 2008.
Pressures are largely due to higher international fuel and rising food costs, but the bank has warned inflation is becoming more broad-based, while consumers continue to spend, partly through debt.
Mboweni reiterated an appeal for South Africans not to overspend.
”South Africans need to live within their means, if we don’t and interest rates change, the cost of servicing debt will be such that we might not be able to service it,” he said.
Household debt rose to a record 76% of disposable income in the first quarter of 2006, with private-sector credit growth still near record levels at about 25% year-on-year. — Reuters