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IOL Business reports that the SA Federation of Trade Unions (Saftu) has slammed Treasury and the SA Reserve Bank’s (SARB’s) reported plan to lower the consumer inflation target to 3% and has called for a mass mobilisation outside Parliament on Wednesday.
Minister of Finance Enoch Godongwana is set to address the inflation target during his Medium-Term Budget Policy Statement (MTBPS) on Wednesday in Parliament. The SARB’s official target range is 3% to 6%, with a midpoint of 4.5%. Media reports indicate that the government is considering lowering the inflation target in an effort to curb rising prices. Saftu said the move would hurt workers, increase unemployment, and worsen economic inequality, and described it as an attack on the working class.
"The Reserve Bank continues to insist that lowering the target is 'pro-poor'. But this is the logic of a surgeon who proudly announces a 'successful operation' while the patient lies dead on the table. It is the fiction of technocrats who congratulate themselves while the economy flatlines," the federation said. It added that lowering the inflation target was not a neutral "technical adjustment" but a political decision that would deepen unemployment, suppress household spending, and undermine wages.
- Read the full original of the report in the above regard by Mthobisi Nozulela at IOL Business
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