The trade deficit grew on account of increased imports related to the infrastructure investment programme, and lacklustre exports, as well as declining terms of trade. The depreciation of the rand exchange rate resulted in a deterioration in the Bank’s inflation outlook, and the targeted measure of inflation increased from just below 5.0 per cent in August 2012 to 6.4 per cent in August 2013.
One is to apply specific regulations only to those classes of banking organizations whose activities and scale require those measures. The other is to tailor the application of generally applicable measures based on the size or other salient characteristics of banking organizations. When regulatory agencies adopt regulations under their general prudential authority, they usually have a choice as between these approaches.