{"id":30021,"date":"2026-03-26T16:00:05","date_gmt":"2026-03-26T14:00:05","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.channelafrica.co.za\/channelafrica\/?post_type=news&#038;p=30021"},"modified":"2026-03-26T16:03:35","modified_gmt":"2026-03-26T14:03:35","slug":"sa-policy-rate-on-hold-as-iran-war-seen-pushing-up-inflation","status":"publish","type":"news","link":"https:\/\/www.channelafrica.co.za\/channelafrica\/news\/sa-policy-rate-on-hold-as-iran-war-seen-pushing-up-inflation\/","title":{"rendered":"SA policy rate on hold as Iran war seen pushing up inflation"},"content":{"rendered":"<div dir=\"ltr\" data-olk-copy-source=\"MessageBody\">South Africa\u2019s (SA) central bank maintained its main lending rate at \u200b6.75% this Thursday, saying caution was needed as higher \u200cenergy prices triggered by the United States (US) Israel war against Iran would push up inflation.<\/div>\n<div id=\"x_ms-outlook-mobile-signature\">\n<div>Economists polled by\u00a0<i>Reuters<\/i>\u00a0had expected no change in \u200bthe repo rate, as the Middle East conflict has \u200bforced central banks around the world to revise \u2060their forecasts and reconsider the path for interest rates.<\/div>\n<div dir=\"ltr\"><\/div>\n<div dir=\"ltr\">SA\u2019s inflation was well-contained in the months before the conflict, \u200bslowing to the central bank&#8217;s 3% target in February but it is expected to pick up as the effects of anticipated fuel price \u200bhikes and a weaker exchange rate filter through.<\/div>\n<div dir=\"ltr\"><\/div>\n<div>The decision \u200bby the Monetary Policy Committee of the South African Reserve Bank (SARB) \u200cwas \u2060unanimous.<\/div>\n<div>&#8220;We warned of elevated risks, and we have been proceeding cautiously in our rate setting,&#8221; Governor Lesetja Kganyago said, reading out the decision. &#8220;Now a crisis has hit, this prudent \u200bapproach is proving \u200bappropriate.&#8221;<\/div>\n<div dir=\"ltr\"><\/div>\n<div dir=\"ltr\">The central \u2060bank expects headline inflation to accelerate to around 4% soon, with fuel inflation of more \u200bthan 18% for the second quarter.<\/div>\n<div>Before the \u200bUS and \u2060Israel started the war and then Iran retaliated, economists had been predicting further policy easing by the SARB this \u2060year.<\/div>\n<div>But those \u200bbets are now off.<\/div>\n<div dir=\"ltr\"><\/div>\n<div>Kganyago said \u200bthe SARB&#8217;s projection model showed rates unchanged for a longer period, postponing cuts \u200bseen in January.<\/div>\n<div dir=\"ltr\"><\/div>\n<div dir=\"ltr\">\u2014Reuters\u2014<\/div>\n<\/div>\n","protected":false},"featured_media":30025,"template":"","meta":{"_acf_changed":false},"news-type":[44],"class_list":["post-30021","news","type-news","status-publish","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","news-type-finance","entry"],"acf":{"short_description":"SA\u2019s inflation was well-contained in the months before the conflict.","published_date":"","news_description":"SA\u2019s inflation was well-contained in the months before the conflict.","form_embed":"","author":"","image_caption":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.channelafrica.co.za\/channelafrica\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/news\/30021","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.channelafrica.co.za\/channelafrica\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/news"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.channelafrica.co.za\/channelafrica\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/news"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/www.channelafrica.co.za\/channelafrica\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/news\/30021\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":30024,"href":"https:\/\/www.channelafrica.co.za\/channelafrica\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/news\/30021\/revisions\/30024"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.channelafrica.co.za\/channelafrica\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/30025"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.channelafrica.co.za\/channelafrica\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=30021"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"news-type","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.channelafrica.co.za\/channelafrica\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/news-type?post=30021"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}