Indicators | Think Economics

KEY INDICATORS

INDICATOR

CURRENT

CHANGE

FREQUENCY

Repo Rate

3.5%

Bimonthly

Prime Lending Rate

CPI

GDP

Debt to GDP

4.9%

5.2%

83%

62.2%

Unemployment

32.6%

32.5%

(30bps)

Bimonthly

Monthly

Quarterly

208bps

Yearly

10bps

Quartely

DESCRIPTIONS

Repo Rate:

Prime Lending Rate:

CPI:

GDP:

Unemployment:

BPS

The rate at which central bank's lend money to commercial banks. The rate is determined by the Monetary Policy Committee (MPC) at the MPC meeting which happens every 2 months

The base rate at which banks lend money to their customers. This increases or decrease when the Repo Rate changes. It is determined at Repo + 3.5%.

Consumer Price Index (CPI), also known as inflation, measures the average change in prices for a basket of goods and services. StatsSA releases CPI figures monthly. The SARB targets inflation between 3%-6%.

Gross Domestic Product (GDP) measures the total market value of goods and services produced domestically in a given year. GDP is widely used to measure growth or how well an economy is doing. Figures are release quarterly.

The unemployment rate measures the total number of unemployed individuals as a percentage of the total labour force. StatsSA reports on both narrow and expanded (including discouraged individuals) unemployment.

Basis points. A 100bps = 1%