SARB sees financial system staying resilient despite Iran war

SARB sees financial system staying resilient despite Iran war South Africa's central bank said on Wednesday the country's financial system was likely to remain resilient despite tighter financial conditions and monetary policy stemming from the Iran war. Africa's biggest economy started to pick up pace last year and investor sentiment brightened on signs of fiscal discipline, but the Iran war has dampened the near-term outlook as it has rippled through oil markets, capital flows and household finances. "The oil price shock is expected to continue to exert inflationary pressure, potentially prompting tighter monetary policy than before the conflict," the South African Reserve Bank (SARB) said in its Financial Stability Review, a biannual checkup on the health of the financial system. The SARB's quarterly projection model now suggests another interest rate increase in 2026 after a 25-basis-point hike at its policy meeting on May 28. "Relief for interest rate-sensitive households is unlikely to materialise as expected at the beginning of the year," it said in the report. It noted that beyond the immediate impact of the Middle East conflict, advances in frontier AI, notably Anthropic's Claude Mythos Preview, also posed financial stability risks. "Cyber risk has shifted from episodic and largely manageable events to continuous and compounding," it added. Other risks mentioned in the review included capital outflows amid heightened market uncertainty, unsustainable fiscal dynamics and increased financial distress in households. "Despite these risks, the South African financial system remains resilient overall," said the central bank. South Africa's foreign exchange reserves have grown to over 16% of gross domestic product, the highest recorded level since the early 1960s, and the country meets all major reserve-adequacy metrics, the bank continued.