LABOUR and opposition parties have called on the Reserve Bank to decrease the interest rate by 2percent to cushion consumers from the recession that has hit the country.

LABOUR and opposition parties have called on the Reserve Bank to decrease the interest rate by 2percent to cushion consumers from the recession that has hit the country.

Cope's spokesperson Phillip Dexter, pictured, said slashing interest rates would make credit cheaper and ease the pressure on people who were paying off debt.

The National Union of Metalworkers of South Africa and the Young Communist League said they would today march on the Reserve Bank to demand the slashing of interest rates.

Cosatu described the announcement by the Treasury that the country's GDP had dropped by 6,4percent as "a horrific national crisis".

Cosatu general secretary Zwelinzima Vavi called for "a radically expanded public works programme to provide work for the growing number of unemployed".

Dexter said the Treasury had known that the country was in a recession for a long time but had hidden the bad news from South Africans.