ANC deployees at Sarb, Treasury 'do as they please'

'We need to target GDP growth and employment'

- By Mpho Sibanyoni

The debate over how the South African Reserve Bank (Sarb) is managing the monetary policy has once again come under the spotlight as it meets for the interest rate decision this week.

Reserve Bank Governor Lesetja Kganyago recently came under fire for cutting the repo rate, the interest banks have to pay on loans from the central bank, too slowly.

Sunday World recently reported that an ANC economic transformation discussion document proposed a shifting of focus to aggressive interest rate cuts to revive the struggling economy, an important departure from its earlier plans to increase value-added tax.

This came as the National Treasury and Reserve Bank announced in a joint statement they have initiated steps to change the inflation target band, which currently is between 3% and 6%.