Moneyweb reports that a shock rise in consumer price inflation (CPI) has left the SA Reserve Bank’s (Sarb) Monetary Policy Committee (MPC) with a difficult choice when it comes to considering interest rates today.

Sarb governor Lesetja Kganyago has previously signalled that the repo rate would remain unchanged at 3.5% for some time, but an increase in the annual CPI to 4.4% in April 2021, from 3.2% in March 2021, might force the MPC to reconsider. There was a rise of 0.7% month-on-month in April 2021. The main contributors to the 4.4% annual inflation rate were food and non-alcoholic beverages; housing and utilities; transport; and miscellaneous goods and services. The surprise rise in CPI reverses the downward trend in inflation over the past five years and moves it close to the midpoint of the MPC’s inflation target.

• Read the full original of the report in the above regard by Larry Claasen at Moneyweb

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