SA has scope to cut repo rate further – OECD
The Reserve Bank had scope to cut interest rates further to bolster growth in the face of the global economic slowdown, the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD) said yesterday. The bank has left the benchmark interest rate unchanged at 5 percent since July as a weaker rand and rising food and fuel prices stoked inflation. Even so, inflation has remained within the bank’s 3 percent to 6 percent target for the past six months. “Monetary policy should be used to provide short-term stimulus,” the OECD said in its November 2012 Economic Outlook. – Bloomberg page 28
Cosatu warns of farm wage tumult
The government’s failure to find a solution to the minimum wage for Western Cape farmworkers looked set to “blow up” in early December, Cosatu warned last night. The federation’s Western Cape regional secretary, Tony Ehrenreich, said the government and the labour minister had “done nothing” to avert the crisis. page 23