South Africa Reserve Bank
Korean and South African Interest Rate Cuts to 2.5% and 7.25%
May 29, 2025
Central bank interest rates were sliced today by 25 basis points in both South Korea and South Africa. South Korea‘s new Base Rate becomes 2.50%, its lowest level since October 2022. A peak of 3.5% had been maintained from January 2023 until an initial cut last October. Quarter percentage point reductions were also done in […] More
Favorable Nvidia Earnings, Revised U.S. GDP Data, and A Significant Court Ruling Against U.S. Tariff Policy
May 29, 2025
Nvidia’s first quarter earnings leaped over 70% year-on-year, crushing analyst expectations and eliciting a 5.4% pre-open jump in the AI computer chipmaker’s share price. A small revision to U.S. quarterly GDP growth last quarter from -0.3% at an annualized rate to -0.2% in the second of three planned estimates masks some sizable changes in the […] More
Dollar, U.S. Stock Futures, 10-Year Treasury Yield and Prices of Oil and Bitcoin Down Marginally as Another Frenzied Week Winds Down
March 21, 2025
Market Movements Overnight: The weighted DXY dollar index edged 0.1% lower overnight, with dips of 0.2% against the Swiss franc but no change versus the yen or euro. In pre-open futures stock trading, major U.S. indices softened 0.3-0.4%. A three-basis point additional drop in the 10-year Treasury yield has been matched by the movement in […] More
South Africa’s Second Central Bank Rate Cut Size of 25 Basis Points Matched Expectations
November 21, 2024
The South African Reserve Bank policy interest rate was cut today to a 19-month low of 7.75%. A peak of 8.25% was maintained for 16 months from May 2023 until an initial reduction of 25 basis points at the previous policy review in September. Consumer price inflation in South Africa has decelerated from 7.8% in […] More
Big Data Release Day Including Inflation Measures for the U.S., Euroland and Tokyo
May 31, 2024
Just minutes before the release of the U.S. personal consumption expenditures price deflator, the dollar showed overnight losses of 0.3% against the Canadian and Aussie currencies and 0.2% versus the euro and peso but had also risen 0.2% against the yen and 0.1% versus the Swiss franc and sterling. Ten-year German, French, Italian and Spanish […] More
Several Central Bank Policy Meetings Elsewhere on This U.S. Thanksgiving Day
November 24, 2022
With the U.S. observing its quintessentially most unique holiday, the dollar continued to back off from recent highs, dropping 0.3% on a weighted DXY basis overnight and extending its cumulative decline from peak to 7.8%. The dollar lost 0.9% against the yen today and 0.6% versus sterling but just 0.1% relative to the euro. Prices […] More
Only a 25-Basis Point Interest Rate Hike in South Africa
January 27, 2022
Officials at the South Africa Reserve Bank are attempting to engineer a more gradual normalization of their policy interest rate than, for instance, those at the Central Bank of Chile. Chile’s policy rate has been raised five times by a total of 500 basis points in total to 5.5% since mid-2021. The SARB repo rate, […] More
South African Interest Rate Hike
November 18, 2021
The South Africa Reserve Bank’s repo rate was increased by 25 basis points to 3.75% from a record low of 3.5% in place since April 2020. The approved decision passed by a narrow 3-2 vote by members of the Monetary Policy Committee. Analysts had been anticipating an initial rate hike this month. CPI inflation has […] More
A Diversity of Central Bank Rate Decisions… Dollar and Equities Mixed
November 18, 2021
Central bank officials today cut Turkey’s one-week repo rate by 100 basis points, left record-low policy interest rates unchanged in the Philippines and Indonesia, and are widely expected to announce an interest rate hike in South Africa. This year’s unexpectedly sharp acceleration of inflation to multi-year and multi-decade highs around the world has overshadowed Covid […] More
South African Repo Rate Slashed 100 Basis Points
March 19, 2020
The latest and largest rate cut today has been a 100-basis point reduction in the South Africa Reserve Bank’s repo rate to 5.25%. This follows a 25-basis point cut in January and an initial 25-bp cut in July 2019. The repo rate had been as high as 7% from March 2016 through July 2017. Ahead […] More
