Inflation targeting was an anchor of monetary policy, SA's new deputy finance minister Nhlanhla Nene told the Financial Mail.

In an interview with the weekly magazine published on Thursday, Nene said it was important that a strong message was sent that price stability had to be sustained at low levels, "because inflation hurts the poor. So I would imagine that we would want to stick to the current policy."

Asked if he was to be groomed as successor to the current finance minister Trevor Manuel, Nene said that nothing had been said to him to that effect.

"My horizon is just the next six months until the end of the president's term. Even as a member of parliament, your appointment lasts only until the end of the term."

Nene said he would first have to be elected as an MP. "After that, where I would be deployed would be in the hands of the ANC."

Nene told the FM that he believed in a mixed market economy that was both pro-poor and had solid macro-economic policies "like we have at the moment".

Nene said he did not think that there were presently "mixed messages" coming from the ruling alliance on the direction of economic policy. "There is ongoing debate. It has two sides: there are those who think we should be more relaxed in fiscal and monetary policy and those who think we should keep it tight. "Our prudent fiscal stance has helped to keep us afloat and enabledus to weather the current storm."

Nene -- who recently made the news when his chair collapsed under him during a television interview -- was sworn in as Deputy Minister of Finance earlier this month.

He takes the place of Jabu Moleketi who resigned after former president Thabo Mbeki was axed in September.