Bank lifts repo rate to 4.75%, affirming its inflation-targeting mandate
Increase expected by most economists and analysts after inflation for April remained at 5.9%
Image: 123RF/UFUK ZIVANA
The Reserve Bank has raised interest rates for a fourth consecutive meeting, as it moves to normalise policy from historical lows in a context in which a spike in global and domestic inflation has prompted both developed and developing markets to do the same.
After its three-day meeting, the monetary policy committee (MPC) on Thursday lifted the repo rate by 50 basis points, as predicted by 16 of 24 economists surveyed by Reuters.
This was the biggest increase in the rate in more than six years, confirming the Bank’s hawkish stance as spiralling fuel and food costs push consumer price increases closer to the upper end of its target range.
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