South Africa's inflation rate drops to almost nine-year low
South Africa’s annual inflation rate dropped more than forecast to the lowest in almost nine years in October, providing some room for the central bank to ease policy.
Consumer-price growth slowed to 3.7% compared with 4.1% in September, Pretoria-based Statistics South Africa said Wednesday in a statement on its website. The latest print marks 31 consecutive months in which inflation has remained within the central bank’s target band of 3% to 6%. The median estimate of 14 economists in a Bloomberg survey was 3.9%.
The slowdown in inflation may provide the central bank with room to cut its benchmark interest rate on Thursday. In September, the Reserve Bank’s quarterly projection model showed the repurchase rate staying at 6.5% for the rest of the year, but the Monetary Policy Committee (MPC) at the time also projected inflation will peak at 5.3% in the first quarter, which is well above the preferred 4.5%.
While the MPC has faced calls to ease policy to boost an economy that is forecast to expand just 0.5% this year, its modeling shows a 25 basis-point cut point will only increase economic growth by 0.1 percentage point a year later. A deteriorating fiscal outlook and political and policy uncertainty limit the central bank’s ability to cut rates, it said in October.
Annual core inflation, which excludes the prices of food, non-alcoholic drinks, fuel and electricity, was unchanged at 4%.
Comments
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