The Reserve Bank is stuck in ideology and not reality in relation to managing inflation.

Labour federation Cosatu’s spokesperson Sizwe Pamla says monetary policy is not the right tool to manage some of the issues, which are fiscal and imported.

Pamla warns that South Africa is being taken on an ideological adventure which all citizens will end paying for.

The central bank raised the repo rate to 7 percent and the prime lending rate to 10.5%.

This is a further squeeze on consumers, as a larger chunk of their salary will need to go to servicing their debt.

These include credit cards and bonds.

Pamla says the Reserve Bank is only worsening an already bad economic situation.