South African inflation expectations ease as war clouds outlook
South Africa’s two-year inflation expectations moderated marginally, welcome news for the central bank as the Iran war clouds the outlook.
Average inflation expectations two years ahead — the gauge monetary policymakers prefer for setting borrowing costs — fell to 3.6% in the first quarter from 3.7% previously, according to a survey published by the Stellenbosch-based Bureau for Economic Research on Monday.
The survey data was collected between February 16 and March 5.
Oil prices have surged and rand has weakened sharply since the US and Israel unleashed their war on Iran on February 28. South Africa is an oil importer and higher prices and currency depreciation place upward pressure on costs.
The South African Reserve Bank targets inflation at 3% and is expected to hold interest rates steady at 6.75% when it meets next week.
Price expectations two years ahead are an important ingredient in its policy assessment, but the Middle East conflict adds a high level of uncertainty to any forecast which argues strongly for policy caution.
The publication of the BER survey comes before the release of South Africa’s February consumer-price index on Wednesday. Economists surveyed by Bloomberg expect to the rate to decline to 3.1% year-on-year, compared with 3.5% the month before.
Article Enquiry
Email Article
Save Article
Feedback
To advertise email advertising@creamermedia.co.za or click here
Press Office
Announcements
What's On
Subscribe to improve your user experience...
Option 1 (equivalent of R125 a month):
Receive a weekly copy of Creamer Media's Engineering News & Mining Weekly magazine
(print copy for those in South Africa and e-magazine for those outside of South Africa)
Receive daily email newsletters
Access to full search results
Access archive of magazine back copies
Access to Projects in Progress
Access to ONE Research Report of your choice in PDF format
Option 2 (equivalent of R375 a month):
All benefits from Option 1
PLUS
Access to Creamer Media's Research Channel Africa for ALL Research Reports, in PDF format, on various industrial and mining sectors
including Electricity; Water; Energy Transition; Hydrogen; Roads, Rail and Ports; Coal; Gold; Platinum; Battery Metals; etc.
Already a subscriber?
Forgotten your password?
Receive weekly copy of Creamer Media's Engineering News & Mining Weekly magazine (print copy for those in South Africa and e-magazine for those outside of South Africa)
➕
Recieve daily email newsletters
➕
Access to full search results
➕
Access archive of magazine back copies
➕
Access to Projects in Progress
➕
Access to ONE Research Report of your choice in PDF format
RESEARCH CHANNEL AFRICA
R4500 (equivalent of R375 a month)
SUBSCRIBEAll benefits from Option 1
➕
Access to Creamer Media's Research Channel Africa for ALL Research Reports on various industrial and mining sectors, in PDF format, including on:
Electricity
➕
Water
➕
Energy Transition
➕
Hydrogen
➕
Roads, Rail and Ports
➕
Coal
➕
Gold
➕
Platinum
➕
Battery Metals
➕
etc.
Receive all benefits from Option 1 or Option 2 delivered to numerous people at your company
➕
Multiple User names and Passwords for simultaneous log-ins
➕
Intranet integration access to all in your organisation

















