Moreover, some recent studies have raised the prospect that the economies of the United States and other countries will grow more slowly in the future as a result of both demographic factors and a slower pace of productivity gains from technological advances.
But now things are changing in the world, and South Africa, as a small open economy, has also had to adjust. Part of that adjustment has been a weaker exchange rate, which is why we have seen the rand at around R17 to the dollar lately, rather than R14 or so to the dollar, where we were a year ago.