South Africa Prescribed rate of interest
South Africa Prescribed rate of interest is 10.5 percent, in force since 1 Jul 2026. It was 10.25 percent before that. Last checked against the official source on 8 Sep 2026.
South Africa's prescribed rate of interest — the default rate for mora interest on debts and for judgment debts — set by the Prescribed Rate of Interest Act 55 of 1975 as the SARB repurchase (repo) rate plus 3.5 percentage points, taking effect on the first day of the second month after the month the repo is determined (s 1(2)(c)). Derived live from this API's ZA policy-rate series with that statutory lag applied.
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| Current value | 10.5 percent |
|---|---|
| In force from | 2026-07-01 |
| Official source | Derived from the SARB repo rate (this API's ZA policy-rate series) under the Prescribed Rate of Interest Act 55 of 1975, s1(2) CITATION NOTE (2026-08-05): gov.za withdrew its document page for the Act; this is the Department of Justice and Constitutional Development's copy, that department being responsible for the Act. |
| Last verified | 2026-09-08 |
| Verification | derived — Computed from another series we hold, not read from any document. Computed from another series we hold (reference rate plus the statutory margin), not read from a document. |
| Provenance | source fingerprint |
What this value means
The prescribed rate of interest (the default rate for mora interest on debts and for interest on judgment debts) = the SARB repo rate + 3.5 percentage points (Prescribed Rate of Interest Act 55 of 1975, s 1(2)(a), as substituted by s 3 of the Judicial Matters Amendment Act 24 of 2015, in operation 8 January 2016). TIMING IS PART OF THE STATUTE: s 1(2)(c) makes each change effective from the FIRST DAY OF THE SECOND MONTH following the month in which the repo rate is DETERMINED by the SARB — the MPC announcement, not the repo's own effective date. Example: the hike to 7.0% was determined 28 May 2026 (repo effective 29 May), so the prescribed rate stayed 10.25% through 30 June 2026 and became 10.5% on 1 July 2026. This series applies that lag: effective_from is the statutory first-of-second-month date, and reference.effective_from is the repo change's own date. (Until 2026-08-07 the formula was applied on the repo's own date; an outside audit correctly flagged the misstatement of the 29 May–30 June 2026 window and the derivation was corrected.) The Minister of Justice must publish each change by Gazette notice (s 1(2)(b)), but the notices are declaratory in practice — published months after their stated effect dates or not at all; GN 3887 of 17 April 2026 even states 'as from 1 March 2026' for the change whose statute-automatic date was 1 January 2026 (from the repo cut determined 20 November 2025). We serve the statutory date and flag that divergence rather than adopt an anomalous late notice. History windows are computed the same way from the repo history; the FIRST window's start is where our repo coverage begins, a coverage boundary rather than a statutory change date. Derived live from this API's policy-rate series.
Earlier values
| From | Value | Source |
|---|---|---|
| 2026-01-01 | 10.25 | Derived from the SARB repo rate (this API's ZA policy-rate… |
| 2025-09-01 | 10.5 | Derived from the SARB repo rate (this API's ZA policy-rate… |
| 2025-07-01 | 10.75 | Derived from the SARB repo rate (this API's ZA policy-rate… |
| 2025-03-01 | 11 | Derived from the SARB repo rate (this API's ZA policy-rate… |
| 2025-01-01 | 11.25 | Derived from the SARB repo rate (this API's ZA policy-rate… |
| 2024-11-01 | 11.5 | Derived from the SARB repo rate (this API's ZA policy-rate… |
| 2023-07-01 | 11.75 | Derived from the SARB repo rate (this API's ZA policy-rate… |
| 2023-05-01 | 11.25 | Derived from the SARB repo rate (this API's ZA policy-rate… |
| 2023-03-01 | 10.75 | Derived from the SARB repo rate (this API's ZA policy-rate… |
| 2023-01-01 | 10.5 | Derived from the SARB repo rate (this API's ZA policy-rate… |
| 2022-11-01 | 9.75 | Derived from the SARB repo rate (this API's ZA policy-rate… |
| 2022-09-01 | 9 | Derived from the SARB repo rate (this API's ZA policy-rate… |
Get it programmatically
curl https://afriref.dev/v1/za/statutory-interest
# $0.005 per call — x402 on Base (USDC). No key, no signup.
# History: curl https://afriref.dev/v1/za/statutory-interest/history?from=2020-01-01
# Provenance: curl https://afriref.dev/provenance/za/statutory-interestOther South Africa series: SARB repurchase (repo) rate · VAT standard rate · National Minimum Wage (hourly) · Public holidays · CPI inflation (headline, year-on-year) · Corporate income tax rate · Personal income tax brackets · Statutory social-insurance contributions · SARB rand exchange rates (official reference) · VAT registration threshold · Withholding tax rates
The same figure elsewhere: Tanzania · Togo · Tunisia · Uganda · Zambia · all 34