Thirdly, money-market interest rates followed the repo rate downwards during 2003 and fluctuated around a horizontal trend in the first six months of 2004. Fourthly, yields on long-term government bonds, which had declined during 2003 to a low of 8,78 percent on 12 January 2004, rose to 10,26 percent on 15 June 2004 in response to rising inflation concerns.
With the increase in the external value of the rand, yields fell again to below 10 percent in July. Fifthly, the JSE all-share index declined from an index value of 10387 at the end of December 2003 to 10131 on 21 July 2004 after having risen quite sharply from May 2003.