Joy Immelman (Main Author)

• In May, the South African Reserve Bank (SARB) raised the Repo rate (Repurchase Rate) by a further 50bps to 4.75%.   The SARB last adjusted interest rates on 24 March. Notably, since November 2021, the Repo rate has increased by a total of 125bps.  South Africa’s prime interest rate should now increase to 8.25%.

We’ve had a volatile start to the year, to put it mildly!

Let’s look at the key events driving market movements…

The Rand has gained almost 10% against the USD in 2022.

Let’s look at the driving factors…

On the Global front…

• The unprecedented fiscal and monetary stimulus supported a strong market rebound in 2021.
• The effects of the pandemic in 2021 included the impact of new variants, supply chain bottlenecks and inflationary pressures.

The Global view:

Energy prices rose, driven in part by supply constraints administered by OPEC – as well as global demand increasing at higher levels than expected.