Mr. Stals looks at the role of central banks in today’s economies and discusses the experience of South Africa Address by the Governor of the South African Reserve Bank, Dr. Chris Stals, given at a Conference on Current Economic Policy Issues arranged by the Economics Department of the University of Durban-Westville and The Mercury in Durban on 25/4/97. 1.
The objective of monetary policy There is fairly general consensus in the world of central banking today that the objective of monetary policy should be to protect the value of the currency. There was a time up to the late ’seventies when economists and central bankers advocated a much wider role for monetary policy in the management of the macroeconomy.