The depreciation of the rand can bring many benefits for economic growth and development, provided the advantages for international competitiveness will not be dissipated very quickly by rising costs of production and a rising rate of inflation in the domestic economy. The year 1997 is indeed a testing period for the Reserve Bank and for the monetary policy applied by the Bank.
Senior Deputy Governor Carolyn Wilkins and I are pleased to be here today to discuss the December issue of our biannual Financial System Review (FSR), which we published this morning. The purpose of the FSR is not to predict the most likely outcomes for the financial system.