STANLIB Podcasts

In SA’s new Government of National Unity (GNU) Cabinet, the number of ministers and deputy ministers has grown, which is costly, and there are a lot of new faces in Cabinet whose competence cannot be judged yet. However, there are positive aspects: there is continuity in the key economic cluster, implying that fiscal policy is likely to stay the same, and reform of SOEs is expected to continue und...

SA’s latest inflation data for May was encouraging, with a 0.2% m/m increase, keeping annual inflation at 5.2%. This is still above the SA Reserve Bank’s target of 4.5%, but June’s petrol price decrease is expected to be followed by another in July, which will further bring down inflation, possibly towards 4% by year-end. As a result, some forecasters believe there could be three interest rate cut...

SA’s latest inflation data for May was encouraging, with a 0.2% m/m increase, keeping annual inflation at 5.2%. This is still above the SA Reserve Bank’s target of 4.5%, but June’s petrol price decrease is expected to be followed by another in July, which will further bring down inflation, possibly towards 4% by year-end. As a result, some forecasters believe there could be three interest rate cut...

In the podcast, Kevin Lings discusses SARB’s decision to keep interest rates unchanged at 8.25%, with the MPC indicating that the risks to SA inflation are now “balanced”. Fittingly, he also focuses on the recent SA elections. The rand lost a significant 4% of its value against the US dollar during in the past nine trading days, as investors became more concerned about the likely outcome of SA’s e...