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Economy Live

The South African economy

Rates, the rand, prices, jobs and growth — live where the source is live, every figure with its official source and the period it covers.

Rand per US dollar · ECB reference rateR16.56▼ 5.2% over 1y

Rates & money

The Reserve Bank’s repo rate sets what banks charge; prime is repo plus 3.5 points.

Repo rate7.25%from 25 Sep 2026
Prime lending rate10.75%from 25 Sep 2026
Real repo rate2.85%repo less CPI inflation
R1m bond, 20 years, at primeR10 152.29a month · illustration
Average bank lending rate, yearlyWorld Bank · to 2025
1994-12-31: 15.6%1995-12-31: 17.9%1996-12-31: 19.5%1997-12-31: 20.0%1998-12-31: 21.8%1999-12-31: 18.0%2000-12-31: 14.5%2001-12-31: 13.8%2002-12-31: 15.8%2003-12-31: 15.0%2004-12-31: 11.3%2005-12-31: 10.6%2006-12-31: 11.2%2007-12-31: 13.2%2008-12-31: 15.1%2009-12-31: 11.7%2010-12-31: 9.8%2011-12-31: 9.0%2012-12-31: 8.8%2013-12-31: 8.5%2014-12-31: 9.1%2015-12-31: 9.4%2016-12-31: 10.5%2017-12-31: 10.4%2018-12-31: 10.1%2019-12-31: 10.1%2020-12-31: 7.7%2021-12-31: 7.0%2022-12-31: 8.8%2023-12-31: 11.5%2024-12-31: 11.6%2025-12-31: 10.7%
20.4% · 14.4% · 8.4%1994-12 → 2025-12

Sources

Policy rates: South African Reserve Bank. Inflation, unemployment, GDP: Stats SA. Fuel: Department of Mineral and Petroleum Resources. Daily exchange rates: European Central Bank reference rates via Frankfurter; live rand figures: ExchangeRate-API. Yearly series: World Bank Open Data. Business activity: Business.co.za’s own directory and news index.