South Africa Central Bank raises key interest to 8.25%

South Africa’s central bank delivered the first back-to-back half-point rate hike since 2008, extending its most aggressive monetary policy tightening cycle in at least two decades. 

The monetary policy committee raised the benchmark interest rate to 8.25% from 7.75%, Governor Lesetja Kganyago said at a briefing north of Johannesburg on Thursday. The move was predicted by 21 of 25 economists in a Bloomberg survey. 

All of the MPC’s five members voted for the half-point increase. There have been a cumulative 475 basis points of interest-rate hikes since November 2021. 
The rand fell 0.8% to 19.3911 to the dollar by 3.14 p.m. in Johannesburg. Yields on government debt maturing in 2026 fell four basis points to 9.67%.