In South Africa’s case, we stepped up reserve accumulation – not to influence the currency, but rather to add to what we considered to be a suboptimal level of reserves. Whatever the motive, the impact on profitability is the same.
Economic conditions in the NIEs and ASEAN countries are expected to follow a recovery trend due to the inflow of overseas capital and increases in private consumption and business fixed investment. II. The Japanese economy  Based on the above assessment of the world economy, I will now talk about economic activity and prices in Japan.