Cosatu general secretary Zwelinzima Vavi was disappointed that the strides made in the alliance on monetary policy did not filter into Finance Minister Pravin Gordhan's Budget.

He welcomed a letter written by Gordhan to SA Reserve Bank (SARB) governor Gill Marcus which sought to clarify the role of the SARB, Vavi said from his office at Cosatu House in Johannesburg on Thursday.

"Regrettably that is taken forward in the context of a policy the minister knows there's no consensus around.

"(That is) inflation targeting, and you know, there's not even an attempt to meet us halfway, at least to change the band from three to six percent to something else that is much more manageable."

Vavi said South Africa's preoccupation with wanting the same monetary policy as its European counterparts was absolutely wrong.

"Europe does not have the same levels of unemployment and underdevelopment as we have. They are on the other side of the hill while we have to start our journey," he said.

The Congress of SA Trade Unions (Cosatu) believed progress was being made in the alliance on the matter with a task team established last year.

But the task team was not convened.

"In the meantime government processes are not waiting for us.

"The minister is galloping as we now know."

He said the alliance summit resolutions indicated that the partners were closing the gap on differences at policy level.

"The mood was that the inflation targeting policy had to be reviewed, the band had to be reviewed, we have to keep an interest rate regime that is low, we've got to have a competitive exchange rate, we've got to consider speedbumps so that we don't lose out in terms of investment moving out of the country," he said.

This was a package referred to the task team but the problem, according to Vavi, was that the task team never met.

"It is then left to the minister alone to manage and to decide what is good and what is not good from the alliance summit," Vavi said.

Cosatu would issue a more detailed statement on its reactions to the Budget later on Thursday.