Senior Deputy Governor Wilkins and I are pleased to be here to answer your questions about today’s interest rate announcement and our Monetary Policy Report (MPR). Before taking your questions, let me offer a short summary of Governing Council’s deliberations. It is important that we keep recent developments in context.
The province is home to around 12 per cent of South Africa’s population and makes up around 8 per cent of South Africa’s GDP1, making it the fourth-largest contributor to GDP.2 The Eastern Cape economy is characterised by the dominance of the secondary and tertiary sectors, with the manufacturing industry accounting for almost 14 per cent of the province’s GDP, while trade and finance contribute approximately 20 per cent each.