For central banks, especially those in advanced economies, inequality has become an inescapable issue, and experimental policies like quantitative easing are being blamed for making it worse. In South Africa, we have had very high inequality for a very long time, so for us, these debates are not new.
Nonetheless, there are new ways of thinking and new data to help us understand the issue better. Today, I would like to make a couple of points to clear up some misconceptions that people may have about inequality and, more specifically, about the interactions between inequality and monetary policy.