It reached the high point of R6,63 to the US 2 dollar in December 2010 and then commenced a long slide all the way to R16,87 to the dollar in mid-January of this year. In real effective terms, meaning the exchange rate adjusted for inflation differentials with trading partner countries, January’s exchange rate was just about as depreciated as it has ever been.
Mechanization of soiled note processing while augmenting capacity has also thrown up new challenges like ensuring standardization of machine parameters, slow progress in improvement in processing capacity by commercial banks and security risks on account of manual intervention.