The unemployment rate nevertheless remains high at 30 per cent, but there are encouraging signs that it is not increasing. Unemployment remains one of the main challenges facing South Africa and will be addressed at the planned Growth and Development Summit on 7 June 2003 between Government, Business and Labour.
Perhaps because those asset prices are important to spending, key macroeconomic indicators, such as the unemployment rate, exhibit a similar pattern. It is not surprising then that a macro-focused monetary policy will leave an asymmetric footprint in the data. In the end, my humble advice is to evaluate policymakers relative to the tasks the law has given them.