The South African Reserve Bank (SARB) says it needs more data to assess how the war in the Middle East could affect economic growth, as concerns grow about the rising cost-of-living.

The Central bank hosted the ‘Soweto Talk to the SARB Forum’ which forms part of its outreach engagements with communities.

Residents expressed their fears about the risk of further price increases and that efforts to control inflation could make it harder to keep or find work.

SARB has addressed concerns about how the war in the Middle East could affect its 3% inflation target and what role the bank can play given that the shock is driven by supply side factors.

Deputy Governor Fundi Tshazibana says the Central bank has some data to guide its assessment, but some uncertainty still lingers.

“We expect to see an increase in the cost of fertiliser because we get a lot of our fertiliser from the Middle East. However, the impact of this war has got some unique features in that infrastructure is being destroyed.

There is a lot that we don’t know in that regard, but when infrastructure is being destroyed, it’s not just about the availability of oil, it is also about the availability of oil refineries. So SA not only imports oil, but we also import big portion of our diesel that is refined already from Saudi Arabia among other countries.”

–SABC–