Surprise Rate Cut - 25th Mar 2010
The rand softened in afternoon trade on Thursday following a decision by the South African Reserve Bank's Monetary Policy Committee (MPC) to reduce the repo rate by 50 basis points to 6.5%.Reserve Bank Governor Gill Marcus said that while an appreciated rand exchange rate is a positive factor in the inflation outlook, an excessively strong exchange rate is a cause for concern from the perspective of overall macroeconomic balance.
The rate cut decision was somewhat of a surprise as consensus expectation in the marketplace had been for an unchanged repo rate, with only two of the 11 economists polled by I-Net Bridge expecting a cut of 50 basis points.
With this rate cut the prime lending rate in South Africa has dropped to 10%. In its wake the Rand softened slightly but recovered quickly.
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