Currency weakness and tighter monetary policies impacted significantly on economic performance, as was the case in South Africa. We certainly looked forward to a period of relative calm from 1999 onwards. Unfortunately, the financial markets have not afforded us this opportunity and volatility has been a somewhat persistent feature of the financial markets in the year 2000 and 2001 to date.
The most volatile markets have been the stock markets, particularly those trading technology stocks – and probably also media and telecommunication stocks – the well-known trilogy, TMT stocks. However, the volatility has also extended to the fixed income and currency markets.