Why does this matter to me?

The past week saw some risk-off trade returning, mainly because of renewed threats by the Trump Administration of increased import tariffs on the EU and concerns of rising US public debt due to significant tax cuts. Equity prices fell back, and bond yields of longer-term maturity rose. Unsurprisingly, however, most of the domestic focus was on Budget 3.0 and on a visit by a South African delegation to meet with President Trump in Washington. Neither of these developments upset domestic markets nor the Rand, which also benefitted from a weaker Dollar. With inflation still under 3%, there is, therefore, scope for the Reserve Bank to cut the repo rate by -0.25% at its MPC meeting this week.