•  Distortions were by that time so much embedded in the South African financial structure that the sudden removal of exchange control would not only have exerted pressure on the country’s low level of official foreign exchange reserves, but could also have forced painful immediate structural changes that would have unduly disrupted the domestic economy in the short term.
The South African authorities therefore decided on a gradual phasing-out of the existing exchange controls. Beginning already in 1993, the following relaxations were accordingly introduced over the past five years: •  As a first priority, all exchange controls applicable to current account transactions were removed. South Africa now fully complies with the requirements of Article VIII of the International Monetary Fund.