Falcon interest rate hike from South Africa

The South African Central Bank made a more hawkish policy move than market expectations to rein in inflation.

The bank increased its policy rate by 50 basis points to 7.75 percent. The expectation of economists participating in the Bloomberg survey was that the interest rate would increase by 25 basis points to 7.50 percent.

The Bank raised its average inflation expectation for 2023 from 5.4 percent to 6 percent.

Inflation in the country fell to 6.9 percent in January, the lowest level in 8 months, and rose again to 7 percent in February.