The new repo rate was announced by the Reserve Bank Governor Lesetja Kganyago, who expressed that the increase is due to rising inflation, persistent load shedding as well as the elevated global prices.

The 50 basis point increase is double what was expected, with three monetary policy committee members from the bank having preferred this increase, whilst two others preferred an increase of just 25 basis points.

Despite this, the announcement comes following meetings held by the committee over the past week.

With this increase being the ninth consecutive increase of its kind since November 2021, Kganyago expressed that this is to "anchor inflation expectations more firmly around the mid-point of the target band and to increase the confidence of attaining the inflation target sustainably over time".

Meanwhile, the repo rate increase has resulted in an improvement in the rand value against the dollar by 2% since its announcement.