Overall, the Federal Reserve’s liquidity programs appear to have made a significant contribution to the stabilization of the financial system, and they did so at no cost to taxpayers and with no credit losses. The Federal Reserve also recently completed its purchases of $ trillion of federal agency mortgage-backed securities and about $ billion of agency debt.
While these movements of the exchange rate of the rand reduced the international competitiveness of South African producers, it also caused the prices of imported goods to record twelve-month declines over the past 14 months, notwithstanding a significant increase in the international price of crude oil over this period.