Finance Minister Tito Mboweni said today, government’s COVID-19 rescue package far exceeded the R500 billion announced by President Cyril Ramaphosa on Tuesday.
Mboweni said the R500bn announced by the President together with measures taken by the South African Reserve Bank (SARB) will bring additional life into the whole financial system.
“This takes our total economy wide measures over R800 billion. Let me say that again – our combined fiscal and monetary policy package is over R800 billion. This is a major fiscal and monetary policy response, Mboweni said.
The SARB has cut interest rates aggressively in the last few weeks as a means to cushion the economy and households from the impact of COVID-19.
The central bank has already cut the repo rate by 200 basis points (2%), in a move said to have unlocked at least R80 billion in the real economy. The Lesetja Kganyago led Bank has also taken other steps to provide additional liquidity to the financial system.
