{"id":48055,"date":"2026-10-15T12:45:25","date_gmt":"2026-10-15T10:45:25","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.channelafrica.co.za\/channelafrica\/?post_type=news&#038;p=48055"},"modified":"2026-10-15T12:45:25","modified_gmt":"2026-10-15T10:45:25","slug":"sas-central-bank-governor-kganyago-sees-upside-risks-to-inflation","status":"publish","type":"news","link":"https:\/\/www.channelafrica.co.za\/channelafrica\/news\/sas-central-bank-governor-kganyago-sees-upside-risks-to-inflation\/","title":{"rendered":"SA&#8217;s Central bank Governor Kganyago sees upside risks to inflation"},"content":{"rendered":"<div>\n<p class=\"x_MsoNormal\">Rising global energy prices and food costs continue to pose upside risks to inflation in South Africa (SA), the central bank head said on Thursday, \u200bwith consumer prices expected to return to the 3% target only in 2028.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<div>\n<p class=\"x_MsoNormal\">Speaking \u200cto Reuters in an interview on the sidelines of the International Monetary Fund and World Bank annual meetings in Bangkok, Governor of the SA Reserve Bank Lesetja Kganyago said inflation is expected to average 4.4% this year, before easing \u200bto within the central bank&#8217;s tolerance band in 2027 and returning to target \u200bin 2028.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<div>\n<p class=\"x_MsoNormal\">The comments suggest the Central bank may need to keep monetary \u2060policy tight, after it raised rates by 25 basis points to 7.25% last month \u200bto combat inflation.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<div>\n<p class=\"x_MsoNormal\">&#8220;The risks to the outlook, of course, they have to do with the\u00a0\u200bgeopolitical uncertainty, which feeds into the oil price, what&#8217;s happening with fertiliser prices and what that could mean for the food outlook, there&#8217;s the risk of El Ni\u00f1o and there is risk to the\u00a0\u200bgrain supply chain through the Black Sea,&#8221; he said.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<div>\n<p class=\"x_MsoNormal\">&#8220;So far, the measures of underlying \u200binflation point to an upturn in inflation, and that is a concern.&#8221;<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<div>\n<p class=\"x_MsoNormal\">Latest data showed headline inflation in SA \u2060picked up slightly to an annual 4.4% in August, mainly driven by the housing and utilities, transport, and insurance and financial services categories.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<div>\n<p class=\"x_MsoNormal\">The rate increase in September was a unanimous decision following a pause in July. The next monetary policy decision is due in November.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<div>\n<p class=\"x_MsoNormal\">Kganyago \u200bdeclined to comment on \u200bthe prospect of \u2060further rate hikes, saying only that the current rate was &#8220;moderately restrictive&#8221; and that future monetary policy decisions would be taken &#8220;meeting by meeting&#8221;.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<div>\n<p class=\"x_MsoNormal\">Some \u200binflationary pressures had been offset by a steady exchange rate, Kganyago \u200bsaid, with \u2060the SA Rand little changed so far this year despite a stronger Dollar.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<div>\n<p class=\"x_MsoNormal\">&#8211;Reuters&#8211;<\/p>\n<\/div>\n","protected":false},"featured_media":30025,"template":"","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"_members_access_role":[],"_members_access_error":"","_links_to":"","_links_to_target":""},"news-type":[44],"class_list":["post-48055","news","type-news","status-publish","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","news-type-finance","entry"],"acf":{"short_description":"","published_date":"","news_description":"Rising global energy prices and food costs pose upside risks to inflation","form_embed":"","author":"","image_caption":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.channelafrica.co.za\/channelafrica\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/news\/48055","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\/48055\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":48057,"href":"https:\/\/www.channelafrica.co.za\/channelafrica\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/news\/48055\/revisions\/48057"}],"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=48055"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"news-type","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.channelafrica.co.za\/channelafrica\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/news-type?post=48055"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}