Prescribed rate of interest today

The rule in plain words

When a debt carries interest but no law, agreement or trade custom sets the rate, the Prescribed Rate of Interest Act does: the Reserve Bank’s repo rate plus 3.5 percentage points a year. It’s the usual rate for interest on money paid late (mora interest), and section 2A applies it to unliquidated debts, such as a claim for damages, too.

When a new rate starts. On the first day of the second month after the month the Reserve Bank decides the repo rate: a decision in May applies from 1 July, one in November from 1 January.

The Minister’s notice. The Minister of Justice must publish each new rate in the Government Gazette, but the Act itself sets the rate and the date it starts. Notices have often been late or back-dated, and 9 of the 30 rates since 2016 have none, so we show the Act’s date for each rate and, beside it, the notice that published it.

Which rate a debt carries. Section 1(1) calculates interest at the rate “as at the time when such interest begins to run”, unless a court orders otherwise because of special circumstances. Read that way, a debt keeps the rate of the day its interest started.

Before 2016. The repo-linked rule began on 8 January 2016, under the Judicial Matters Amendment Act 24 of 2015. Before that the Minister set a fixed rate: 9% a year from 1 August 2014 (GN R.554 of 2014, Government Gazette 37831).

This isn’t legal advice.

Sources

The rule: section 1 of the Prescribed Rate of Interest Act 55 of 1975, as substituted by section 3 of the Judicial Matters Amendment Act 24 of 2015 (Government Gazette 39587, 8 January 2016).

The repo rate and the dates of the Reserve Bank’s decisions: each Monetary Policy Committee announcement, recorded as it was made public. The Minister’s notices: the Government Gazette, searched up to 7 November 2026; each notice above links to the Government Printing Works’ copy, except the four from 2016 to 2018, which are older than its online archive.

Each rate is worked out by us from the Act and the repo rate; the Act gives the rate, not a table. This page shows the latest release of our reference rates dataset, where every rate carries its decision date, its notice and its notes. See also the repo rate and prime and the National Credit Act’s maximum interest rates.