Initially, there was considerable opposition to OMT in some quarters on the grounds that it was not the central bank’s job to stabilise the euro area, but rather that of politicians, and that doing so would cross the line into fiscal policy.
Debt dynamics Minister Nene has already spoken about the fiscal aspects of macroeconomic policy. I now turn to aggregate debt dynamics and in particular private-sector debt. In the years before the Great Recession, South Africa’s debt-to-GDP ratio declined markedly due to robust growth and booming revenue collection.