The South African Reserve Bank (Sarb) has begun using direct feedback from businesses to better gauge economic activity and help guide monetary policy.
“Industry engagement is standard practice among leading central banks,” the Sarb said in its biannual Monetary Policy Review published on Tuesday.
“It provides timely indicators of economic activity and pricing pressures, supports interpretation of official data and is particularly valuable during periods of heightened uncertainty or when data are published with long lags – such as gross domestic product.”
Following pilot interviews in August 2025, the programme has expanded to cover most major economic sectors, it said.
The engagement is similar to the Bureau for Economic Research’s inflation expectations survey, but takes into consideration more variables and is conducted between each rate-setting meeting – making it more frequent and more timely.
This is according to Witness Simbanegavi, Sarb divisional head of policy development.
“We have to look
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