18.01.201810:00:00UTC+00S. Africa CB Maintains Key Rate

South Africa's central bank kept its key interest rate unchanged on Thursday and gave an upbeat outlook for economic growth, although from a low base.

The Monetary Policy Committee of the South African Reserve Bank held its key interest rate steady at 6.75 percent.

The decision was taken in a majority vote with five members calling to hold rates.

The bank said the the risks to the growth forecast were more or less balanced, given improvement in the outlook for household consumption expenditure.

The central bank raised the growth forecast for this year and the next year to 1.4 percent and 1.6 percent, from 1.2 percent and 1.5 percent, respectively. The bank noted that the inflationary outlook has improved and expects the prices to remain close to the midpoint of the target range in near term.

The bank assessed the risks to the inflation forecast to be still on the upside, though the degree of the upside risk has subsided.

The inflation forecast for 2018 and 2019 were revised down to 4.9 percent and 5.4 percent, from previous projections of 5.2 percent and 5.5 percent, respectively.