Johannesburg - The repo rate will remain unchanged at 5.75 percent, SA Reserve Bank governor Lesetja Kganyago said on Thursday.
“Given the uncertainty related to the US policy normalisation and the weak state of the domestic economy, the MPC (monetary policy committee) has unanimously decided to keep the repurchase rate unchanged for now,” Kganyago said in Pretoria.
The repo rate has remained the same since September last year, following a 25 basis points increase in July from 5.5 percent.
Kganyago said the bank's growth forecast for the year remained unchanged at 2.2 percent for 2015 and 2.3 percent for 2016.
The bank's leading indicator of economic activity, which had followed a moderately decline trend in 2014, also suggested a continuation of the sluggish growth outlook.
“Underlying this outlook is the continued weakness in growth of gross fixed capital formation, which contracted by 0.4 percent during 2014, with private sector fixed investment contracting by 3.4 percent, despite some recovery in the final quarter of the year,” Kganyago said.
Sapa