However, by the next meeting this assessment had changed in the light of new developments, including the risk posed to the outlook by Eskom’s application for a significant further increase in the price of electricity. At its most recent meeting in August 2008 the MPC decided to keep the monetary policy stance unchanged.
The committee decided that although upside risks to the inflation outlook remained, the degree of risk had subsided somewhat, particularly in the light of the continued slowdown in household consumption expenditure, the widening output gap and the lower international oil prices.