Global analysts Lehman Brothers said on Wednesday that they viewed central bank governor Tito Mboweni’s speech on Tuesday as "mildly hawkish".
South Africa was better off with using inflation targeting as an instrument of monetary policy, the governor of the SA Reserve Bank said on Tuesday.
Should analysts and economists publicly raise concerns about issues that affect millions of South Africans, only to be condemned for doing so?
The secret talks between Morgan Tsvangirai and Robert Mugabe are not a "new dawn" for Zimbabwe, as some South African media seem to imagine.
The driving forces of inflation in South Africa have spread beyond food and fuel, Reserve Bank Governor Tito Mboweni said on Wednesday.
South Africa’s targeted CPIX inflation quickened to a new five-and-half-year high of 10,9% year-on-year in May from 10,4% in April.
Measures to deal with surging South African consumer prices will hurt, but central bank policymakers are not ”inflation nutters”.
SA is braced for a slowdown after a stretch of solid growth, as higher interest rates coupled with rising food and fuel costs are set to bite.
The latest hike in the repo rate is a ”cruel blow” to South Africans trying to recover from the previous nine 0,5% increases, Cosatu said on Friday.
The South African Reserve Bank’s Monetary Policy Committee on Thursday decided to increase the repo rate by 50 basis points to 12%.
It is ingrained in the national consciousness that the only way to deal with inflation is for Tito Mboweni to use increasingly large clubs to clobber the consumer with higher and higher interest rates.
South Africa’s targeted inflation is not expected back in the 3% to 6% band before the end of 2009, and there are significant upside risks to this forecast, South African Reserve Bank Governor Tito Mboweni said on Tuesday. The Reserve Bank has raised its repo rate by 450 basis points to 11,5% since June 2006 to try to tame inflation.
South Africa’s key CPIX (consumer inflation less mortgage costs) is unlikely to return to within the 3% to 6% target band before 2010, a senior South African Reserve Bank official said on Monday. The targeted gauge jumped unexpectedly to a near five-and-a-half-year high of 10,4% year-on-year in April.
President Thabo Mbeki has failed to provide leadership and should be recalled from the presidency to make way for early elections, the South African Communist Party (SACP) said on Sunday. The SACP blamed Mbeki for a recent wave of violence against foreigners in which 62 people have been killed.
South Africa’s producer price inflation (PPI) accelerated unexpectedly to 12,4% year-on-year in April, increasing the possibility of a bigger than previously expected interest-rate hike in June. Statistics South Africa said on Thursday headline PPI — which represents domestic output — accelerated from an upwardly revised 11,9% in March.
South African Reserve Bank Governor Tito Mboweni said on Wednesday that the task of the central bank is to maintain inflation in the 3% to 6% target band, and with CPIX (consumer inflation less mortgage costs) now at 10,4%, "drastic" measures are required. "This is way above the upper limit — you don’t have to be a genius to tell interest rates have to tighten," he said.
Global analysts Lehman Brothers wondered out loud on Friday morning whether some notably hawkish statements by Reserve Bank Governor Tito Mboweni on Thursday might be a signal that a rate hike of 100 basis points could be on the cards come June 12.
South African inflation was facing stubborn and persistent external shocks that were helping to drive prices higher, central bank Governor Tito Mboweni said on Thursday. But it would be foolish to change the 3% to 6% inflation target range, he said in a speech at a monetary policy conference in Johannesburg.
Finance Minister Trevor Manuel on Tuesday defended inflation targeting as an economic management tool and hinted the government was still comfortable with a 3% to 6% percent target range for the main CPIX (consumer inflation less mortgage costs) gauge.
A Frenchman pretending to be the Reserve Bank Governor, Tito Mboweni, and his four accomplices have allegedly fleeced a foreign businessman of more than R2-million. Adam Toure and his cronies Mark Ezende, Alpheus Onabuenyi, Meleece Ayoba and her husband Franklin briefly appeared in the Randburg Magistrate’s Court this week on two charges of fraud.
South Africa should be prepared to intervene in the foreign exchange market to keep its currency stable and ”competitive”, and should maintain its inflation targets, a group advising the government said. In its report released on Thursday, an international panel — known as the Harvard Group — also suggested a budget surplus of between 1% and 2% to help ease inflation.
The increase in the retail price of petrol by 55 cents per litre will result in a ”period of anguish” for South African households, an economist said on Wednesday. Absa economist Chris Hart said the increase would cause food prices to rise and fuel inflation. Hart said the country was expecting a hike in electricity prices as well as an increase in the rate of taxes.
South African private sector credit growth jumped to 22,62% year-on-year in March, knocking expectations of a slowdown in spending and hardening the case for more interest rates increases. Central bank data on Wednesday showed growth in demand for credit leapt from 20,79% in February, while M3 money supply growth edged higher to 21%.
High food and fuel costs in South Africa have spilled over into second-round inflationary effects that have to be tackled, Reserve Bank Governor Tito Mboweni said on Tuesday. He also, again, warned in an interview with CNBC Africa that an excessive increase in electricity prices will have serious consequences for inflation.
South Africa’s targeted CPIX (consumer inflation less mortgage costs) rate jumped to a new five-year high of 10,1% in March, beating forecasts and hardening expectations for another interest-rate increase. Statistics South Africa said the targeted measure jumped from 9,4% in February to its highest level since December 2002.
South African Reserve Bank Governor Tito Mboweni has raised the repo rate, at which the South African Reserve Bank lends money to banks, by 50 basis points to 11,5% following a two-day meeting of the bank’s monetary policy committee. The prime overdraft rate therefore increases to 15%.
Talk of China’s interest in a stake in BHP Billiton has sent the resources index northward and, in turn, helped the JSE advance further by midday on Wednesday. Dow Jones newswires said that the <i>Australian</i> reported in its Wednesday edition China is in the early stages of planning to buy a stake in miner BHP Billiton.
One of the most decisive rates meetings yet of the South African Reserve Bank’s monetary policy committee (MPC) began on Wednesday morning with "no hitches", according to a bank spokesperson. The meeting will end after lunchtime on Thursday, with the final decision announced live to the public just after 3pm.
Inflationary pressures pose a greater challenge to Southern Africa than global financial-market turmoil, South African Reserve Bank Governor Tito Mboweni said on Friday. It was important that regional economies continued to pursue price stability through appropriate monetary policies.
Growth in demand for credit from South Africa’s private sector slowed to 20,79% year-on-year in February, lower than expectations and easing pressure for an interest-rate hike next week. The central bank said on Wednesday private sector credit extension slowed from a revised 23,06% year-on-year in January.
South Africa plans to boost livestock and crop production by up to 15% in the next two to five years and help tame soaring food inflation, an agriculture official said on Monday. Priscilla Sehoole, chief communication officer at the Department of Agriculture said the government was ”confident” it would achieve its expansion targets.
A senior bond-portfolio manager and an emerging-markets analyst from Lehman Brothers both uttered the same dreaded word soon after reading what Tito Mboweni had said in Parliament on Wednesday: hawkish. In fact, Lehman Brothers now predicts a 50-basis-point increase in the repo rate on April 10 to 11,5%.