The improvement in South Africa’s long-term foreign currency debt rating from BB (high risk, speculative grade credit) in 1994 to BBB+ in 2005 (investment grade rating), made South Africa’s debt much more attractive to the international investing community. The most recent upgrades by Fitch and Standard and Poor’s contributed towards tighter spreads on South African debt.
We are fully committed to maintaining price stability over the medium term, that is, inflation below, but close to, 2%, and we have been absolutely clear that our inflation objective is symmetric: low inflation is as bad as high inflation. There are already indications that we are making significant progress in reintegrating financial markets. .