South Africa\u2019s biggest labour union is to stage a national strike next week, 24 August, to protest against the rising cost of fuel and food and continuing power cuts, Bloomberg reports.<\/p>\n
The planned work stoppage will also represent \u201ca response by the workers to the ongoing class warfare directed at them by both public and private sector employers,\u201d the Congress of South African Trade Unions said in an emailed statement on Monday. Further details about the strike will be announced on 18 August, it said.<\/p>\n
“The National Strike is in response to the ongoing load shedding, fuel price hikes and escalating food prices. This socio-economic strike also represents a pushback and a response by the workers to the ongoing class warfare directed at them by both public and private sector employers,” it said.<\/p>\n
In July, South Africa delivered its biggest increase in borrowing costs in almost two decades and signaled a faster pace of hikes through next year, Bloomberg said.<\/p>\n
The monetary policy committee raised the repurchase interest rate to 5.5% from 4.75% – it\u2019s the biggest hike since September 2002.<\/p>\n
The central bank\u2019s preemptive hiking cycle started in November and Thursday\u2019s move helps to narrow the spread between inflation and the benchmark rate, potentially burnishing the appeal of local assets to offshore investors and supporting a currency that\u2019s weakened by more than 6% against the dollar this year, said Bloomberg.<\/p>\n
The higher cost of money adds to the burden of households facing a cost-of-living crisis spurred by rising food and fuel costs, and threatens to weigh on household consumption that accounts for about two-thirds of gross domestic product.<\/p>\n
While the move to lift borrowing costs is painful for now, it\u2019s \u201ca sign of a central bank acting credibly to return the inflation rate to their target in order to mitigate the pain of higher inflation down the line,\u201d said Angelika Goliger, chief economist at EY Africa.<\/p>\n