Both hiring and capital investment lagged the usual recovery pace. One possible source of this caution was said to be questions about the strength and sustainability of the recovery, accentuated by concerns about terrorism and other geopolitical uncertainties. Many periods of recovery have been accompanied by concerns about economic growth and political turmoil.
But the privilege of serving successively on the Monetary Policy Committees of two such different countries is given to relatively few central bankers and it has been fascinating to try to assess whether monetary policy really is different in Africa. What strikes one initially, in moving from a developed to an emerging market economy, is the remarkable similarity in the monetary policy process.