As can be deducted from some of the statistics quoted in this address, South Africa is now firmly on the road of greater participation in the expanding international financial markets. Recent events in the wake of the East Asian financial crisis proved once again, however, that the globalisation process is not without risk.
After all, the US subprime crisis – in other words, private sector debt problems in the United States together with real estate bubbles – formed the nucleus from which the financial crisis grew. A high level of debt in the private sector is by no means solely a US phenomenon, but one that also affects Europe.