Sarb cuts by 25bps – Moneyweb

The South African Reserve Bank (Sarb) cut its repo rate by 25 basis points (bps) on Thursday for the third consecutive Monetary Policy Committee (MPC) meeting, bringing the benchmark rate to 7.5%.

Sarb governor Lesetja Kganyago announced the widely expected move following the MPC’s first meeting for 2025. Still, his tone was one of caution for further cuts amid an uncertain global environment for the rest of the year.

Read: Rate chokehold on African economies is set to loosen slowly

The reduction takes SA’s prime interest rate for commercial banks to 11%.

SA inflation has fallen firmly within the Sarb’s 3-6% target range, with the Consumer Price Index (CPI) coming in at 3% for December. While this was marginally higher than the November CPI print of 2.9%, it was still below economists’ expectations of around 3.2%.

Read: Inflation quickens less than expected in December

Follow Moneyweb’s in-depth finance and business news on WhatsApp here.