The South African (SA) central bank’s interest-rate setting committee has a full complement for the first time since 2018, after it announced economist Franz Ruch as its seventh member on Thursday.
The SA Reserve Bank (SARB) said in a statement that Ruch had started on October 1 as an adviser to the governors and Monetary Policy Committee (MPC) member.
The MPC, which meets roughly every two months to set interest rates, consists of up to seven SARB officials.
But it has had fewer than that for years after some senior officials resigned. The bank said previously it wanted to appoint more members to the MPC but was looking for the right people.
The last MPC meeting where seven members were present was in September 2018, a SARB Spokesperson told Reuters.
Ruch has rejoined the SARB from the World Bank, where he served as a senior economist and contributed to research and publications including the Global Economic Prospects report.
Before that he worked in the SARB’s economic research department, where he helped develop economic models and contributed to the bank’s Monetary Policy Review.
At last week’s interest rate announcement, the MPC raised its policy rate for the second time this year, saying the Iran war had created “large and sustained” price shocks and tighter monetary policy was needed.
The bank’s next interest rate announcement is due in mid-November.
–Reuters–
