(MENAFN- The Peninsula) Bloomberg
South Africa's central bank delivered the first back-to-back half-point rate hike since 2008, extending its most aggressive monetary policy tightening cycle in at least two decades.
The monetary policy committee raised the benchmark interest rate to 8.25% from 7.75%, Governor Lesetja Kganyago said at a briefing north of Johannesburg on Thursday. The move was predicted by 21 of 25 economists in a Bloomberg survey.
All of the MPC's five members voted for the half-point increase. There have been a cumulative 475 basis points of interest-rate hikes since November 2021.
The rand fell 0.8% to 19.3911 to the dollar by 3.14 p.m. in Johannesburg. Yields on government debt maturing in 2026 fell four basis points to 9.67%.
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