SARB outreach programme

South African Reserve Bank chief economist, Dr Monde Mnyande, yesterday reiterated previous communication made by a number of SARB officials that it should not be expected to solve all of the economic problems of South Africa. Mnyande made reference to the SARB’s outreach programme launched in December last year which aims to provide stakeholders (labour, organized business, the top 20 JSE listed companies that report to non-resident investors, to name a few) with a better understanding of the Bank’s role and its mandate. He said that the outreach programme was a positive in the sense that “when things are communicated and the logic behind what the Bank does is explained and debated, the stakeholders become less antagonistic towards the Bank”.

According to Mnyande, these outreach programmes will continue to endeavour to contribute to the “national debate” in anticipation of “coherent and implementable economic policy strategies”.


Mnyande’s comments come as no surprise to us, particularly given SARB Governor Gill Marcus’ comments on a number of occasions that monetary policy was not the “silver bullet” to solve all of SA’s economic inadequacies. While we continue to look for a further 50bp interest rate cut by the SARB in the coming months, this move is seen in light of an improved medium-term inflation trajectory helped along by still benign inflationary pressures on both a domestic and global scale along with the current strength of the rand, rather than a move to try to promote factors such as employment which some movements have called for.