Cosatu slams latest interest rate hike
Increase due to weaker rand, wage pressures
Cosatu has condemned the latest interest rate hike by the Reserve Bank, describing it as “overzealously reckless”.
The SA Reserve Bank raised interest rates for a sixth meeting running to protect the weakened rand and stabilise inflation expectations. The monetary policy committee (MPC) yesterday lifted repo rate by 75 basis points to 6.25%.
The trade union federation spokesperson Sizwe Pamla said: “The reality is that this is not going to change anything. It is only going to suffocate the consumer.”
He said Reserve Bank could not address the imported cost of fuel by raising interest rates.
“The inflation we have is imported, the basic necessities like wheat is imported from Ukraine and Russia, and due to war the product is scarce in the market. Those are problems that the Reserve Bank can’t solve. This also applies to Eskom ... the Reserve Bank can’t stop load-shedding. For the Reserve Bank to pretend to be addressing these issues by increasing the cost of borrowing is a reckless mismanagement of the economy,” he said.