PRETORIA - South Africa's central bank raised its repo rate by 50 basis points (bps) to 8.25% in a decision announced on Thursday.

The South African Reserve Bank has now raised rates for the 10th time in a row, adding a total of 475 bps to the repo rate since it began tightening policy in November 2021.

The rate increase was larger than the 25 bps increase expected by the majority of economists in a Reuters poll published last week.

(Reporting by Anait Miridzhanian, Bhargav Acharya and Kopano Gumbi; Editing by Alexander Winning)