Hawkish noises.

(From Business Day (South Africa))

Hawkish noises IT's been almost a year since the Reserve Bank last moved on interest rates, cutting the repo to 7% in April. This is the longest stretch of stable rates SA has seen for many a decade. And many more months of stability are on the cards, despite or maybe because of the hawkish noises from Reserve Bank governor Tito Mboweni this week.

Though he doesn't do it too often, Mboweni has become adept at massaging inflationary expectations. That ability is a crucial weapon in the arsenal of any central bank governor because of the key role expectations play in shaping pricing behaviour. When Mboweni warns of …