Although South Africa did not experience the same economic problems as the East Asian countries, the contagion effect spilled over into the South African economy in May 1998 when foreign fund managers were withdrawing portfolio investments from all the emerging markets of the world, and not only from the East Asian countries.
What lessons did we learn from that experience? There were of course a whole host of factors which caused these difficulties. One important factor was the sheer inexperience of many of our bankers: they had been accustomed to a highly protected environment, and were ill-prepared to deal with the demands of a deregulated environment. Nevertheless, I think there were four important lessons.