After remaining nearly flat in the second half of the 1980s, private capital flows jumped to an annual average of US $ 124 billion during 1990-96. 1 With the onset of the Asian financial crisis, total private capital flows fell to an annual average of US $ 86 billion during 1997-2002.
Fortunately pressures on inflation from this source dissipated somewhat with the decline in the international oil prices and since August domestic petrol prices have declined by a total of R1,07 per litre. Despite this recent moderation, we still see the international oil price being vulnerable to global geo-political tensions, and therefore it continues to pose an upside risk to our inflation outlook.