“At the time, the higher-than-anticipated 50bps rate hike at the previous (March 2023) MPC meeting was widely thought to be the last – or at worst the penultimate – repo rate hike in the current interest rate cycle.
With the inflation outlook deteriorating since the previous Monetary Policy Committee meeting – with the headline inflation rate again breaching the upper limit of the 4-6% target for the second consecutive month at 7.4% in June 2022, it was inevitable that a decision would be taken to further increase the repo rate, the question was simply by how much.
Fourth quarter (Q4 19) statistics released by ooba, South Africa’s leading home loan comparison service, show minimal growth of 1.8% in the Average House Price year-on-year from Q4 18 to Q4 19. The Average Purchase Price of First-time Buyers performed marginally better, up 2.5% for the same period.
Housing demand has continued to gain momentum since the start of the year and in the third quarter, the number of applications for home loans was at its highest level in more than three years, according to the latest statistics from BetterBond, SA’s foremost bond originator.
South Africa suffered its worst decline in economic activity in a decade, in the first quarter of 2019.
The value of outstanding credit balances in the South African household sector increased by 5,9% year-on-year (y/y) to R1 653,3 billion up to the end of February 2019 (3,9% y/y at end-February 2018), with growth in total credit balances as well as secured and unsecured credit balances remaining unchanged from end-January.
The Monetary Policy Committee (MPC) of the Reserve Bank has once again decided to leave South Africa’s repo rate unchanged at 6,75% and prime interest rate the same at 10,25%.
With inflation currently below the mid-point of the Reserve Bank’s inflation target and economic growth remaining sluggish, the Monetary Policy Committee kept the repo rate steady at 6.75%, as expected.
South Africa is likely to exit its technical recession in the third quarter, the Bureau of Economic Research (BER) said on Tuesday.
The Reserve Bank has decided to keep the repo rate unchanged at 6.5% per annum, Governor Lesetja Kganyago said on Thursday.
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