Further Interest Rate Cut as expected - 28th May 2009
The South African Reserve Bank's monetary policy committee has cut the key repo rate by 100 basis points, bringing it down to 7.5%, with the prime lending rate dropping to 11%.The repo rate is the rate at which the central bank lends to other banks, while the prime lending rate is the benchmark rate at which banks lend to customers.
The announcement came after economists said the Reserve Bank would be more worried by the dire gross domestic product (GDP) figures released earlier this week than the stickiness of the inflation rate. Tuesday's GDP figures showed a shocking 6.4% plunge in the first quarter of this year, after a 1.8% fall in the fourth quarter of 2008.
Inflation remained high at levels above the Reserve Bank's 3% to 6% target range in April, falling marginally to 8.4% from 8.5% in March, figures released by Statistics SA on Wednesday showed.
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