Furthermore, the same data also show that in the past few years net flows into South African securities have become increasingly sensitive to shifts in the US yield curve. Since the “taper tantrum” of May 2013, months when 10-year US Treasury yields rose by more than 10 basis points coincided with net non-resident outflows from South African bonds, whereas other months saw net inflows.
Besides, close administrative control of interest rates would not be easily compatible with the principle of an open market economy with free competition which has underpinned the considerable increase in national prosperity over the past half century in Ireland (and which of course is enshrined in the European Union Treaty).