The danger of such an approach is, of course, that central banks could concentrate too much on expansionary policies at the cost of maintaining price stability. Despite the fact that South Africa has only been able to maintain low inflation over a relatively short period, it can be argued that the Reserve Bank should now give more attention to the promotion of economic growth.
I wondered how I would be able to contribute most to discussions at this meeting without overlapping other participants’ presentations, and I decided to talk about economic policy challenges lying ahead, especially monetary policy challenges, with consideration of Japan’s experience.