Consumers urged to cut debt

South Africa's central bank is willing to raise interest rates further if the inflation outlook worsens, the bank's governor Tito Mboweni said on Thursday, urging consumers to cut debt.

But he offered a reprieve to commercial banks, saying the Reserve Bank would hold off on raising reserve requirements to give them more time to curb high lending.

The Reserve Bank last month kept its key repo rate unchanged at 9% after increasing rates by 200 basis points between June and December last year, citing a peak in CPIX inflation within the country's 3%-6% inflation target.

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