Mantashe: Reserve Bank’s mandate must expand to meet economy’s needs

THE ANC wants to broaden the central bank’s mandate to ensure it plays a bigger role in supporting the economy, a change that may require a constitutional amendment it won’t be able to effect on its own.

“The mandate of the Reserve Bank has to be expanded to meet the needs of the economy,” Gwede Mantashe, the chairman of the African National Congress, said in an interview in the central city of Mangaung on Friday following the conclusion of the party’s national conference.

While the decision had been taken in principle, more detailed discussions are needed before constitutional amendments are submitted to parliament, he said.

The ANC’s proposal comes as the economy struggles to recover from the coronavirus pandemic and an ongoing electricity supply crisis that’s curbing output. The South African Reserve Bank implements its inflation-targeting mandate in the interests of balanced and sustainable growth and has repeatedly said obstacles