Inflation has 'turned the corner', says Kganyago

South African Reserve Bank Governor Lesetja Kganyago said the fight to tame rising prices was delivering results and the central bank will stick to its task to get them under control.

“Inflation has turned the corner,” Kganyago said this week in an interview on Metro FM.

“What we need to see is inflation declining all the way to within our target range.”

The central bank’s monetary policy committee has increased the key rate by 475 basis points to 8.25%, its highest level in 14 years, since it started tightening in November 2021.

Target range

It is trying to bring inflation back down to the 4.5% midpoint of its target range, where it prefers to anchor price-growth expectations.

Inflation has been above that level for more than two years and is forecast by the central bank to return to the midpoint in the third quarter of 2025.

In May, inflation slowed to a 13-month low of 6.3% and is expected to revert to the Reserve Bank’s target range of 3% to 6% either in June or this quarter, Kganyago said in an interview last week.

He repeated on Tuesday that he expected inflation to be within the range in the second or third quarter. - Fin24/Bloomberg