Washington – South Africa’s central bank has raised interest rates, a day after a similar move by Turkey.

South Africa’s Reserve Bank surprised observers by boosting its main interest rate to 5.5 per cent from 5 per cent.

Bank governor, Gill Marcus said "the depreciation of the rand exchange rate” was the primary cause of the rate rise.

She added that the global financial crisis was in a ‘new phase’ and was "creating new challenges for emerging market economies”.

The rand - South Africa’s currency - has been under pressure recently, but the bank had still been expected to leave rates on hold.

Marcus explained that since the previous meeting of the Monetary Policy Committee, "the expected cutback in quantitative easing by the US Federal Reserve has begun”.

"Although the initial response in global financial markets was generally fairly muted, emerging markets have subsequently experienced a high degree of turbulence, particularly in the wake of renewed fears of a slowdown in China.”

"While the Federal Reserve action signals a recovery in the US, and the UK economic outlook is also improving, it does not mean that the global financial crisis is over.”