The Monetary Policy Committee began its meeting to decide on interest rates on Tuesday, 19 July 2011.
Experts had expected interest rates to remain unchanged.
"We still expect the MPC to maintain its wait-and-see policy until there is greater evidence of more generalised inflation, either due to second-round effects from higher commodity prices or price pressures emanating from firmer domestic demand.
"Latest statistics on local and international growth have not been encouraging, and we would therefore still expect the Reserve Bank's MPC to delay its first hike until early 2012, as an early interest rate increase would risk curbing the economic recovery," said Nedbank on Wednesday.
In November, the Reserve Bank slashed the repo rate by 50 basis points, reducing it to its lowest in 30 years. Since December 2008, the repo rate has been cut by 650 basis points.
SAnews.gov.za is a South African government news service, published by the Government Communication and Information System (GCIS). SAnews.gov.za (formerly BuaNews) was established to provide quick and easy access to articles and feature stories aimed at keeping the public informed about the implementation of government mandates.
Go to: http://www.sanews.gov.za
