South Africa's Central Bank Maintains Repo Rate at 8.25 Percent

Lesetja Kganyago, SARB governor, made the announcement in Pretoria, the country's administrative capital, while briefing the media about the decision of the bank's monetary policy committee.

He said four members of the committee preferred an unchanged stance, while two preferred a reduction of 25 basis points.

"The committee assessed that an unchanged stance remained appropriate, given the inflation risks. Some members, however, were of the view that the inflation outlook had improved enough to reduce the degree of restrictiveness," said Kganyago.

Kganyago noted that the inflation outlook has improved somewhat as headline inflation for May was 5.2 percent, unchanged from April.

The SARB's latest projection of the country's headline consumer inflation for this year is at 4.9 percent, down from 5.1 percent at the previous meeting, according to Kganyago.

The central bank governor added South Africa's economic performance in the first half of the year was disappointing. "The economy contracted slightly in the first quarter by 0.1 percent, and recent data, including last week's mining and manufacturing numbers, have caused us to trim our second quarter growth estimate modestly to 0.6 percent," he said.

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