{"id":826861,"date":"2025-06-04T14:54:34","date_gmt":"2025-06-04T12:54:34","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/?p=826861"},"modified":"2025-06-04T14:54:40","modified_gmt":"2025-06-04T12:54:40","slug":"reserve-bank-target-changes-still-coming","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/government\/826861\/reserve-bank-target-changes-still-coming\/","title":{"rendered":"Reserve Bank target changes still coming"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

South African Finance Minister Enoch Godongwana said he is waiting for a report on the country\u2019s inflation-targeting dispensation, and he hasn\u2019t decided whether it should be adjusted.\u00a0<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cI do not have any views at the moment,\u201d Godongwana said in an interview in Cape Town on Wednesday.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cAll I do know is that there is a standing committee between ourselves and the Reserve Bank, and one of the matters they are discussing is the level of the inflation target. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

“In the absence of a report tabled before us, we can\u2019t form an opinion.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The central bank\u2019s 3% to 6% inflation target hasn\u2019t been changed since it was introduced in 2000. Its governor, Lesetja Kganyago,\u00a0favours shifting<\/a>\u00a0to a single-point target and has said that aiming for 3% would lead to lower interest rates than otherwise would be the case.\u00a0<\/p>\n\n\n\n

South Africa\u2019s annual inflation rate was less than 3% in March and April, and the central bank last week said it expects it to average 3.2% this year and 4.2% in 2026. The bank aims to anchor inflation expectations around the midpoint of its target range<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Godongwana didn\u2019t specify when he expects the panel that is reviewing the framework to complete its work. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cOnce we get that report, we will form an opinion and issue the appropriate statement,\u201d he said.\u00a0<\/p>\n\n\n\n

S&P Global Ratings Director Ravi Bhatia said a lower target would be good for South Africa\u2019s economy and government finances.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cThe benefits from a rating point of view would primarily be the cost of government borrowing would go down and the cost of credit in the wider economy would go down, which would mean faster growth and more investment,\u201d he said at a conference in Johannesburg on Wednesday. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

A lower target would also help bring down interest rates over the medium and long term, he added.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

South African Finance Minister Enoch Godongwana said he is waiting for a report on the country\u2019s inflation-targeting dispensation, and he hasn\u2019t decided whether it should be adjusted.\u00a0 \u201cI do not have any views at the moment,\u201d Godongwana said in an interview in Cape Town on Wednesday. \u201cAll I do know is that there is a<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":59,"featured_media":812962,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[23],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-826861","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-government"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/826861","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/59"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=826861"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/826861\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":826862,"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/826861\/revisions\/826862"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/812962"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=826861"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=826861"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=826861"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}