Sarb Cuts Interest Rates By 25 Basis Points For First Time In Two Years

The South African Reserve Bank SARB has announced a 25 basis point cut to interest rates to 8 per annum for the first time in over two years today, following a period of tight monetary policy, Cape town Etc reports.

SARB Governor Lesetja Kganyago presented the Monetary Policy Committee MPC at 3pm today.

The new cuts will come into effect on Friday, 20 September.

While the MPC considered a 50bps rate cut, Kganyago reiterated that the decision was unanimous in choosing a 25bps cut based on a risk-based approach.

'We exercise judgement in the analysis. We found 25bps to be a prudent stance to take. It has to do with the fact that there is so much uncertainty. We revised our inflation forecast and thought that inflation would average 4.6.'