JOHANNESBURG (Reuters) -South Africa’s headline consumer inflation edged up to 3.4% year-on-year in September from 3.3% in August, data from the statistics agency showed on Wednesday.
Economists polled by Reuters had predicted annual inflation would quicken to 3.5%.
Since July the central bank has been effectively targeting 3% inflation, despite the finance minister not yet formally changing the bank’s 3%-6% target range.
The South African Reserve Bank (SARB) argues that well-contained price pressures, which have allowed it to cut rates three times this year, present the ideal opportunity to “lock in” low inflation.
The SARB’s next monetary policy announcement is scheduled for November 20. At its last policy meeting in September it held its repo rate, saying it wanted to assess the impact of previous rate cuts.
In month-on-month terms inflation was at 0.2% in September, compared with -0.1% in August.
(Reporting by Sfundo Parakozov and Anathi Madubela;Editing by Alexander Winning)
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