South African Inflation Shows More Room to Pause Rates: Chart

(Bloomberg) -- South Africa's inflation rate has been below the Reserve Bank's repurchase rate for almost seven months and fell to within the central bank's 3 percent to 6 percent target band in August for the first time this year.  That leaves room for policy makers to extend the pause in their tightening cycle. All 27 economists in a Bloomberg survey forecast the Monetary Policy Committee will leave the benchmark rate unchanged when it announces its latest decision Thursday at 3 p.m. in Pretoria.

--With assistance from Simbarashe Gumbo To contact the reporter on this story: Arabile Gumede in Johannesburg at agumede@bloomberg.net. To contact the editors responsible for this story: Rene Vollgraaff at rvollgraaff@bloomberg.net, John Viljoen