This was according to economists interviewed by Farmer’s Weekly. Vuledzani Patience Ndou, a senior economist with economist.co.za, expected the inflation rate to jump out of the Reserve Bank’s target range of 3% to 6% and “therefore decisions like increasing the interest rate have to be taken to bring down inflation and also try to strengthen the rand,” she said.
Laura Campbell, an economist at Econometrix concurred with Ndou. “Under such circumstances, the Reserve Bank is likely to increase interest rates a little further over the short term, despite evidence of fairly soft real economic activity.”
