S.Africa's c.bank casts doubt on maize for ethanol

(Reuters) - South Africa's central bank chief Tito Mboweni has questioned the wisdom of using maize as a source for ethanol, saying global trends have shown this would push up prices of the staple food.

"It seems that we in South Africa think that we are going to produce ethanol from maize," Mboweni said at a dinner.


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S.African c.bank chief Mboweni criticises Barclays - FT

(Reuters) - South Africa's central bank governor has criticised the 2005 takeover by Barclays Plc of South African retail bank Absa, the Financial Times reported on Thursday.

Reserve Bank governor Tito Mboweni called the British bank's stewardship of Absa "discouraging", the newspaper said.


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S.Africa forex markets unhurt by global jitters - c.bank

(Reuters) - South Africa's currency markets did not experience a huge decrease in liquidity during the global market sell-off that started in late February, central bank governor Tito Mboweni said on Tuesday.

"The average daily turnover in South African currency markets is $14-billion and we did no see a sharp drop in turnover during the sell-off," Mboweni told parliament's finance committee.


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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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