South Africa Reserve Bank Governor Tito Mboweni said on Tuesday he would not speak on domestic monetary policy in a speech to a banking conference before an interest-rate decision later this week.
”I have been instructed not to speak about monetary policy here at home … there’s a meeting starting tomorrow [Wednesday], so I can’t speak about that,” he said, adding he would also not take questions on the topic.
Mboweni was speaking at a conference in Sun City, north west of Johannesburg, a day before the start of a two-day monetary policy committee meeting on interest rates.
The Reserve Bank will announce its decision on rates at 13h00 GMT on Thursday, with markets divided over whether it will raise the repo rate again.
It has hiked rates by 300 basis points since June last year to tackle rising inflation, including 50 basis point increases each in June and August.
The targeted CPIX (consumer inflation less mortgage costs) measure has stayed outside the bank’s 3% to 6% band for five months, but some indicators show demand, and wider economic growth, may be easing, clouding the outlook. — Reuters