South Africa's central bank governor, Lesetja Kganyago, told television channel CNBC that inflation could have peaked in the third quarter but the bank wanted to see inflation decline firmly within its 3%-6% target range.

"We would still want to see it (inflation) decline firmly within the target and closer to the midpoint of our inflation target range," Kganyago said in the interview broadcast on Thursday.

"I know many people will talk about the top of the interest rate cycle, I prefer to talk about what is the top for inflation," he said, adding that monetary policy tightening that started last year was starting to feed through into inflation outcomes.

South Africa's Reserve Bank has raised interest rates at the last six monetary policy meetings since its latest tightening cycle began in November 2021.

August consumer inflation dipped to 7.6% from 7.8% in July, the first drop since January. (Reporting by Anait Miridzhanian Writing by Alexander Winning Editing by James Macharia Chege)