Can the South African Reserve Bank (SARB) protect the interest earnings of savers/investors? A new look at Fisher’s hypothesis

In this paper, we evaluate whether the South African Reserve Bank (SARB) has been successful at fulfilling its mandate of protecting the purchasing power of the country’s citizens. To this end, we use quarterly data covering the post-inflation targeting era of 2002:Q1 to 2019:Q4 to re-examine Fisher’s hypothesis for the South African economy by testing for stationarity in real interest rates. Our study makes three noteworthy empirical contributions. Firstly, we use survey-data measures of inflation expectations for different market participants in computing the real interest rate variable. Secondly, our inflation expectations variables are constructed in alignment with the inflation forecast horizons of 12–24 months as practiced by the SARB. Thirdly, we rely on the more powerful flexible Fourier unit root test in testing for integration properties of the real exchange rate. All-in-all, our findings highlight the Reserve Bank’s success in protecting the purchasing power of different economic agents particularly for periods subsequent to the crisis. Policy recommendations are also provided.