Higher interest rates, offsetting the gains made in the post-Covid-19 recovery period, continue to weigh on South African households’ finances, and could dampen spending during Black Friday sales and the Festive Season, the latest Altron FinTech Household Resilience Index (AFHRI) shows. Since the onset of restrictive monetary policy in South Africa, the financial resilience of households has been under pressure, with a strong and predictable inverse correlation between higher interest rates and the AFHRI trend, explained economist Dr Roelof Botha, who compiled the index.
